The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: Othered by Seher Hashmi

This selection, chosen by guest editor Kirsten Kowalewski, is from Othered by Seher Hashmi (Sanjh Publications 2021).

To Langston Hughes

Nothing happens to a dream deferred
Nothing at all
It just stays put
Hanging in your walk-in-closet
Behind saris, slacks, aprons
Garden gloves and jeans
Like a slinky prom dress
While you steal regular peeks
Wondering how to fit in its mould
Without unfurling seams, altering
Its size, original pattern
Its basic scheme
No, it doesn’t go rancid, nor curdles
But it does grow mature in infancy
With sizzling spicy zeal
Like pickled fruits and veges
Or stays infant even in maturity
And, yes, it does ferment, lying
Out of light in a cellar
Changing from brick red 
To tender violet
Ready to slosh out one day
Pleasing your extra-refined palate.

Note: Copies of Othered may be purchased from Sanjh Publications Pakistan. As very small press, they don’t have a website; orders can be placed via WhatsApp at +92-331-4686276.

seher hashmi is an expat poet/ satirist/ spoken word artist/ podcaster of Pakistani origin based in Bahrain. Two of her poetry collections called Othered & Nots hit shelves in the first quarter of the new millennium in 2021 and 2024 respectively. Her debut Othered won her the Daud Kamal Award for the best book of poetry 2021 from the Pakistan Academy of Letters. Her poems have been aired by The Poetry Place and are featured in The Poet, The Sunflower Collective, Tint Journal, etc. She has also founded a podcast for authors and poets called The Bookend.

Kirsten Kowalewski is a former school Librarian, occasional beta reader, book reviewer, and editor for Monster Librarian, an online review resource for horror and dark fiction.