no one can be read

by Maslina Arshad

no one can be read
like an open book
tho some may claim they could

for sometimes secrets seek refuge
in between the lines


© Maslina Arshad 2011

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

you didnt notice by Maslina Arshad

you didnt notice

i was missing from

most pages

deleted from your words

was there but

nowhere to be seen

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

the dead are the ones

the dead are the ones
by Maslina Arshad

the dead are the ones
who
loved the most

they are all gone
becoming shadows

missing them
i seek refuge
amongst the tombstones of memories

© 2010 Maslina Arshad

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Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

Mak Mariam

mak mariam

by Maslina Arshad

never did i ask her
was she lonely

taking cautious steps
stopping to catch her breath
by the sofa, at the table
in the kitchen
as always
a mug in hand
talking to the cats
wishing them well
telling them off

never did she complain
about the lack of human voices,
those final days

© 2009 Maslina Arshad

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Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

every night she waited

every night she waited

by Maslina Arshad

every night she waited
until dawn came
for caresses
for his breath on her neck

glimpses of faded intimacies
she waited
hoping
he remembered,
those days far ago
when all they had was one another

waiting in vain
for someone else's heart
had him now

© Maslina Arshad 2009

Listen to this poem:

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

it was a gift

it was a gift

by Maslina Arshad

it was a gift

wrapped by
layers of
unluckiness
omissions; mine
and others

lack of careful
dilligence
oversight
plain carelessness
all
glued together

a gift nevertheless
inside those
misfortunes
are silver linings
and blessings disguised

© 2009 Maslina Arshad

Listen to this poem:

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

Cry ing

Cry    ing

by Maslina Arshad

some died

cry

ing

a few more will
die as you read
this           they
are all
dead

while     the     world

is

watch

ing

© 2009 Maslina Arshad

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

Note: TMPC deplore the war in Gaza.

how do they choose

how do they choose

by Maslina Arshad

how do they choose
who to die
that day
which spot
to leave
a ticking clock

and afterwards
how do they know
who they’d missed

© 2008 Maslina Arshad

Listen to this poem:

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

how do you love

how do you love

by Maslina Arshad

how do you
love someone
when
you love me
how do you love me
when you
love
some one
how does
someone
love
you
when
you have me
how do you have me when
someone else has you

© 2008 Maslina Arshad


Listen to this poem:

Maslina Arshad: I suppose such questions are asked almost every minute - across the whole world - as long as we are capable of loving and being loved

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

"More than pain" by Maslina Arshad

More than pain

By Maslina Arshad

what the gladiators
didn’t know was
the pain was not more
from the arrows
flown from the folds
of the Colosseum

but from wounded pride
numbing anger
of being trapped
for days, years
leashed within
dark confining cages

that pain was more real
than the blood
from the arrows
piercing their insides
hurting more than
the raw bleeding wounds

© 2008 Maslina Arshad

Listen to this poem:

Maslina Arshad : this poem is about the pain inside which hurts more but cannot be seen.  It uses the imagery of a gladiator to illustrate this condition.

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

"Hostage" by Maslina Arshad

Hostage

By Maslina Arshad

no one should be 
held hostage
to dreams died
and love gone wrong
let her go
to be 
happy as you are

© 2008 Maslina Arshad

Listen to the poem:

  
Creative process: Maslina Arshads: I wrote this after reading a blog, when I came across the line “no one should be held hostage”. It is the worst of such kind when you are not physically trapped but held imprisoned by emotions.

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.

Maslina has two other poems here.

2 poems by Maslina Arshad

Talking colours

by Maslina Arshad

i am grey,
you are
blue?

will you
go red
or turn green?

can we
be orange,
might we
lose violet?

get black,
be brown,
remember yellow?

all white
now

© 2008 Maslina Arshad


Creative process: Maslina Arshad: I was just thinking about how we describe feelings using colours, and from that point I started to play around with the words for them, making the colours more prominent and not as mere background.

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HOROSCOPE

by Maslina Arshad

if i have lost you
would it make any difference
when my horoscope today
said otherwise

© 2008 Maslina Arshad


Creative process: Maslina Arshad: I know many of us like to read horoscopes and would compare their predictions to actual events of our lives for that day. For this I prefer to write a short poem because simple words can represent stronger feelings better.

Maslina Arshad is a closet poet who is also a lawyer by day. She loves reading and is especially blessed to have married a fellow bookworm. She loves watching the rain fall, staring into space for ideas to form into words. She has been writing since many moons ago but never submitted anything to anywhere, until the existence of this webzine. She would love to publish the rest of her work someday. In the meantime she is happy chasing her son chasing the cat, somewhere in the middle of a town called Temerloh. Visit her blog, to see more of her work.