TASTE OF HEAVEN....BY Hiba Rasheed

{Taste of Heaven} by Hiba Rasheed

She knows…Three months oldEyes speak of untold featsConceived one month earlySep 11My neophyte revolutionaryHer torrential presence rainsOn the arid terrains of my soul,Each drop, a caressTo coax lushness within my lifeFound and lost- too many times-In my carnal shroud and clouds of mundaness
I must have done something good in my life
To have herIn mornings riseTo sunlight dancing on her smileHer chocolate skin akinTo the magnanimity flourishingBy the banks of the NileHer face, a canvas, where her father and IDrew sketches of genealogy,Praying our love and faithWould fill those spaces with vibrant colors,So she may someday draw her own sketchesAnd gratefully pray for light in our graves
Beloved childWhose veins throb with ancestral bloodWhich was spilled, moons ago, on Sudan’s streetsWhere my parentsOnce marched in protestFor justice and peaceWhere my aunt(1) laid her life on the lineSo women can now speak their minds,And my uncles(2), now deceased,Published their share of history, poetry and political critique
We named her 7alaWhich defines all that is sweet and pleasurable,In defiance of all strife and callousnessPervading our timesFirst letter of her name حDoes not correlate to any foreign syllable,So she can wear her Arabic languageWith pride on her African hair;Sew Quranic verses in the seams of her heartWhere she can always findSolace and warmth in Allah’s embrace
She knowsWhat I am talking aboutSix months old nowEyes still speak of untold featsYet to come

May she be a better human, friend, sister, mother, daughter and wife,

than I ever was and will be;

may she be the redemption I seek in myafterlife

(1) Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Ahmed_Ibrahim)(2) A- Salah Ahmed Ibrahim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salah_Ahmed_Ibrahim)B- Murtada Ahmed Ibrahim, former minister during president Nimeri’srule, published his memoirs as a minister in Arabic entitled Therebellious minister: The memoirs of the engineer, Murtada AhmadIbrahimC- Ismat Hassan Zulfo, former major in the Sudanese military duringpresident Nimeri’s rule, published three books entitled Karari: TheSudanese Account of the Battle of Omdurman (translated to English), AlKhalifa (The Successor) and Shekan