MOTHER PREPARES THE RITUAL

AFI NOOR

Her fingers //
          Splashed                                    into the grey lake
          Soon-to-be blood               of her children
          To fish out                        fermented dreams
          Down their necks               as they gulped down
          Praises of the east            monsoon, hurtling
          Ancestors                                   into their lips
          Signifying                          failure to resist
          Remembering                             where they came from.
 
She fingers //
                    Against dancing with          the king who wears
                    Fruitful pride                      bashful yellow:
                    Cicoh molek   he teased; lenyek molek
                    but still bows down to the queen,
                    slipping tamarind               through his thorns
                    to overthrow;                     drowning him. 

​Fingers, she //
                    Articulated                        presses constantly,
                    This is what you do: a plate of budu,
                    Swimming upstream                    and down pours
                    The rain of herself             leaking
                    Into mountains                            into harsh children
                    Like the river                     that only knows
                    Winning                                      against humility.​

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Afi Noor is a poet who has read in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and London. She is part of the kata.mata collective and has published a chapbook called Ten Poems. Recently she performed at 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the multidisciplinary physical theatre called The Surge. Her poems are featured in Kisah Journal, Asian Centre Anthology of Malaysian Poetry in English and Odd One Out Magazine.