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).

After all those years

I spent balancing
On tippy toes
After all those nights
I folded, unfolded
Ironed, hung ready 
In vain
After all those teacups
I downed alone
After all those fears
I caked up underneath 
Pretty pink pouts
At last, you appear
When it’s too late
I have already set sail alone
Because Odysseus doesn’t have 
To be male anymore.

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.