Three sets of concentric circles align vertically on the middle left. The top and bottom sets are red, and the centre circle is yellow. Running around and behind the circles are horizontal parallel black and white lines, bending to create rectangular shapes and triangular shapes.

Accretion

Irfan Ali

Brick Books

Copyright

 

 

 

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

 

Title: Accretion / Irfan Ali.

Names: Ali, Irfan, 1985– author.

Description: Poems.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190238208 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190238216 | ISBN 9781771315180 (softcover) | ISBN 9781771315197 (HTML) |
ISBN 9781771315203 (PDF)

Classification: LCC PS8601.L415 A73 2020 | DDC C811/.6—dc23

 

Copyright © Irfan Ali, 2020

 

We acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, and the Ontario Arts Council for their support of our publishing program.

A stylized, illustrated blue tree sits to the left of the words 'Canada Council for the Arts / Counseil des arts du Canada.'' The word Canada is written out with a Canadian flag—a red maple leaf flanked by two vertical red stripes—situated above the final A. A large red A is bisected by an angled blue C, with a green O balanced between the two letters on the left. To the right of the OAC logo are the words 'Ontario Arts Council / Counseil des arts de l'Ontario' over a red line with the words 'An Ontario Government Agency / un organisme du gouvernement de l'Ontario' below the line.

The author photo was taken by Sarah Bodri.

 

Cover design by Rizwan Ali.

 

Brick Books

115 Haliburton Road

London, ON

N6K 2Z2

 

www.brickbooks.ca

Dedication

For my mother Najma,

who taught me life can take root anywhere,

even in a desert.

Contents

 

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Origins

Reckless Abandon

Mother,

Father,

Four Sons

Song for My Sisters

Paki

Ceasefires

Cowards in Love

Reflection

Layla

Water

A Seeing

Endocytosis

What Song Do I Sing Her?

Concord & Bloor

Big

Like Friedrich’s Wanderer

She

The Flaw

A Courtesy to a Coward

Possession

Majnun

Pattern

Sipping Zamzam Water in Regent Park

Apophenia

Sleeping with the Sun

Aftertaste

Doubt

Death of an Arsonist

Revulsion

Ibn Salam

Gravity

The Scream

Staring at the Sun

Vision in the Sands

The Word

Lay Your Hands on Me

Peace Treaty

Irfaan

Song My Sisters Sing Me

Death of Cain

Pops,

Moms,

A Knowing

Arrival

 

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Origins

Reckless Abandon

 

Spend long enough in the gutter

and you’re bound to hear an old cosmic joke:

a boy crafted by loving hands

but imbued with fire

is deposited into a desert.

So, like a sadder Midas,

all he grasps for

turns to ash.

 

It’s the heretic

I’ve tried to keep at bay who tells it,

even when two towers fell

and it was safe to turn apostate.

It’s the heretic who tells it,

usurping me cell by cell,

until now when barely

enough remains to resist.

 

This is it then,

my farewell salaah,

my final prayer.

 

If You’re there then,

prove Yourself different

from the old deities

known first for their flaws.

Dam up this dusty river, divert

me from this course where

I meet Your angels for judgment

and decline the infirmary’s mercy.

 

I recline in the defendant’s box