Soodabeh Saeidnia: Poetry (Western Voices 2021)

Bio: Soodabeh Saeidnia lives in Queens, New York. She got her Pharm D and PhD of Pharmacognosy and has worked as a researcher and university professor in Japan and Iran. Falling in love with poetry at 12, she writes her poems in English and Farsi which have been published in different anthologies and literary magazines. She collected, translated and edited the contemporary poetry from around the world and published them in several anthologies, most recently “Persian Sugar in English Tea” and “Saffron Flavored Rock Candy”. The first volume of the bilingual series, Persian Sugar in English Tea, will be sent to the Moon with a fleet of stories for a Lunar Time Capsule 2021.

 

Farewell

 

my hands sense nothing
when I long to touch you
my arms deprived of your curves
my eyes blind to see your borders
I cannot hold you anymore
as the sun is such a kidnapper
a tormentor who tears you apart
I will wait for the next rain
if you say so
farewell, my dear rainbow

 

Garlic Bread Is a Divine

 

she always says
she prays with her hands
soaked in the cumin dough
and bows to a pouch of cayenne,
to a pan filled with cinnamon rolls
in the line to the oven,
treats them as if

they are children of angels

I often find her lying
prostrate and petrified
on top of the kitchen table,
staring at puff pastries,
afraid to stand up
in front of the saffron closet

she stuffs the Batard loaves
with raisins and savory
and I keep looking for
a trace of garlic
in her divine menu

 

Sabaa

“Sabaa” is the name of a wind
blowing from the east
a gentle breeze
swirling like a playful girl
never destroying a sand castle
singing like the grandpa in the kitchen
never howling to cause a fear
pulling the shy cloud to the sky
hanging over until the rain starts telling
the story of the winds
lost in the memory
of this whimpering hurricane

---

Western Voices 2021 :: Setu, February 2021