A. L. Shahi

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Qawwali on repeat at the end of the church,
someone’s calling my name, but I haven’t yet heard.
Blank stares from stained glass windows
is an art I have mastered.
Ignoring stares of men who don’t mean well
is an art I have mastered.
A group of French tourists
invades the silence—
abrupt loss of privacy.
But what are communal spaces
if you refuse to confess aloud?
Sometimes it’s chin up, sometimes it’s head down.
I never learned which way to go: Keep walking forward,
or can I look back now?
So what if I never learned?
I’m still moving.

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A. L. Shahi is a literature enthusiast who studied Arabic, Persian and Comparative Literature in Scotland. They have published work from literary to musical analysis in university journals. They are an emerging poet with an affinity for the mad and mythical.