Associate Editor Madeleine Wattenberg: When I think about my ideal miCRo poem, it is one that is, well, actually short—a low word count paired with the clear use of each line break and punctuation mark to maximum effect. Huma Sheikh’s “My Legs Are Salwar Starchy” is exactly such a poem. In just nine lines, some only one or two words in length, Sheikh uses the salwar kameez as a guiding image to unravel a reflection on girlhood.
To listen to Huma read her poem, click here:
My Legs Are Salwar Starchy
Girlhood chastity I wore down to my ankles.
Where was breast where was toe,
I couldn’t tell
until mother on the winding staircase of our Himalayan house
unballed me.
A bag of dress.
Unsewn.
On Eid, my kameez was a pleated skirt.
Our bodies, tilla springing from the mountains.
Huma Sheikh is originally from the war-torn region of Kashmir. A doctoral fellow in creative writing at Florida State University, she’s the recipient of fellowships from Callaloo, William Joiner Institute (UMass Boston), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the East-West Center (Hawaii). She is winner of the Adam M. Johnson Fellowship and Charles Gordone Award. Huma is currently at work on her poetry book and memoir. Her work has appeared in Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, Consequence Magazine, Solstice Literary Journal, Arrowsmith Journal, and others.
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