Mahsā

By Bhavika Sicka

Fold out the hems of history

as I emerge from its rolled edges

and I pass the priest who is a man

as he chants the prayers of men

and I pass the poet who is a man

as he pens the songs of men

and I ask the prophet who is a man

why he wrote a book for men

Fold out the hems of history

as I emerge from its rolled edges

and I offer my veil

to a fantailed

flame

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Bhavika Sicka is a Kutchi Gujarati writer settled in Norfolk, Virginia. She has been a finalist for the Times of India's 'Write India' contest and a recipient of the Dickseski Fiction Prize awarded by Old Dominion University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Hunger Mountain, Lunch Ticket, Pleiades, Waxwing, and Beltway Poetry Quarterly, among other journals.