Handle with Care, by Shaheen Dil

Handle with Care, by Bill Karaffa (USA) contemporary. Click image to visit artist Instagram.

​Handle with Care
  
Beauty’s a brute, and breaks
             all that is made to last--
trees, dust, fields fretting their long grasses,
            wild water which wants to drown
 
in its own amplitude, the wind in its cups,
            vaunting its formless voice,
and all the fires the mind conjures
            not quite enough to quit these thoughts.
 
Underneath, the creak and squeak
            of small creatures scurrying
along their paths. Above, wings shimmer
            in summer sun,
 
on the ground, a peacock preens his quills,
            screeches his amorous song--
if there were no peacocks, would we miss this shriek,
            try to re-imagine such a being?
 
Can we imagine a world without birds?
            Recalcitrant bees?
Could we configure a space of luminous silence
            where you and I would meet?
 
Woman, silk, dolls, fields and flowers all crack,
            manifest in space, time seems to bend,
Before and After
twist in a strange embrace.
 
I once was a girl, she mutters, 
            and danced through the rapture of night,
the chariot of dawn came down for my dark eyes
            and bruised lips.
 
Be gentle with the past--
            it comes back,
roots in the present,
            taunts the desperate light.

Shaheen Dil
 
Shaheen Dil was born in Bangladesh and lives in Pittsburgh. Her poems have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies, nominated for the Pushcart Prize, won two honourable mentions in Passager Poetry Contests, and one was short-listed for the 49th Parallel Award in Poetry (Bellingham Review). Dil has published three full-length collections of poetry: Acts of Deference (Fakel), The Boat-maker’s Art (Kelsay Books), and Letters to My Younger Self (Gyroscope Press). She holds a BA from Vassar College, a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. Additional information is available on her website: https://shaheendil.com.