sister-hood is an award-winning digital magazine spotlighting the diverse voices of women of Muslim heritage.
sister-hood is a digital magazine and a series of live events. We create platforms for women of Muslim heritage to speak for themselves, rather than being spoken for or spoken about. sister-hood challenges stereotypes and promotes the fearless, progressive, creative voices of women of Muslim heritage.
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From my lips to your ears
To tell you, would be a lie—
that I’m okay. Holding it together
in dovetail, like love and hate.
Only I can’t remember the last time
someone came by with an unconcealed smile.
These days it’s WhatsApp and Zoom,
Not one to follow crowds, invasions
scare me out of my skin, so for now
my privacy is being preserved by a flimsy mask.
I have found something that works; window watching.
How the night swallows the moon, in one gulp, gone.
The sunrise is my ray of sunshine, it overthrows
the still blue sky: at the close of day
I can happily testify they have kissed and
made up—radiating what I feel inside, peace.
The slabs of thick bread are never tossed
aside as scrap, the morning larks leave
no crumbs behind: they tweet and tell me
they want pumpkin seeds for morrow’s feed.
After some frisking they too fly off.
My garden is sympathetic, sprouting
weeds in the crevices of the drive, calling me
to bend my back, wrench and pull away,
Nature is calling; it has been for some time:
guilty of turning stones, but not listening.
My friend, Mr Jennings, is 93, world wars apart and
I read him poetry; lockdown can’t be easy for him
an atom of freedom taken away, what then, is
left? The smell of summer of 1976, he tells me.
I am waiting like an object to be found
— a witness to hope.
Still, the day is kind, with five allotted segments
like this mandarin from Japan I eat: I’m in
love with the textured sweetness, it lingers
on my lips.
Sheena Hussain
Sheena Hussain is an emerging poet from Bradford, West Yorkshire. Her route to poetry was a cancer diagnosis, she has since left a legal career and now writes poetry, essays & blogs Her debut collection "Memories of A Poet, My Road, My Recovery" was self-published in 2018. She is the founder of a grassroots poetry competition for children called Poem:99, now in its third year. A recipient of Bradford’s Inspirational Women’s Award 2020. She has been published by Pure Slush, Truth Serum Press, AnotherNorth.org and Porridge Magazine. You can find her at www.poetrybysheenapoetrybyname.com and @poetrybysheena