Poems by Adilah Ahmed

 

Salaah (Prayer)

 

I am called five times a day

To purify myself and pray

A higher purpose

My true calling

I submit

 

Fajr

The dawn prayer

The morning light spreads across the expanse of the sky

I am awake before the world

The silence is deafening

I call it soft magic

 

Zuhr

The midday prayer

The sun begins to pass its zenith

I am beginning to reach the busy part of my day

But I make the time

 

Asr

The evening prayer

The hardest prayer

But the strongest reminder

That this world is a temporary one

 

Maghrib

The sunset prayer

With orange skies

I get myself ready

My day has ended

And my night

Just beginning

 

Isha

The night prayer

Begins when the red light disappears from the sky

And will last until the next dawn

I complete my last prayer

With it, I have made it through another day

 

I will do it all again tomorrow

Insha’Allah (God willing)

 

 

Paradox

 

 

Pages from my diaries

Plastered like wallpaper

I sit in this room

With my thoughts

Wondering

If I am thinking

Or whether

I have been thought up