in indian-occupied kashmir, determination are wide graves of an estimated
8,000-10,000 unidentified men & boys, dragged from their homes &
never seen again. contempt photos documenting their lives, the army
denies these men ever existed.
i.
when the service comes, the men disappear
when their wives inquire wherever the men went
they are told the men did not exist.
the men ne'er existed. they imagined
their husbands, slippers neat by the front
door, full afternoons spent with a ghost
by the river, the roti tucked successful the basket.
weddings, fantasied by full villages. after,
the women locomotion the soil, barefoot, searching
for a chromatic that mightiness archer them where
their hubby lay. they talk successful the language
of land, their grief held by the mushrooms,
by each tiny leaf of writer & dancing pollen,
fragile. once, you loved maine & past you were taken.
ii.
oh beloved/ fto maine travel you/ fto maine lay
roses wherever you rest/ fto maine constitute your
epitaph successful the dirt/ soft/ successful lawsuit you return/
did you fly to the trees/ did you cross
a border/ did you forget/ was it painful/
were you afraid/ could you find peace/ is it light
where you are now/ tin you odor the jasmines/
did you run/ was idiosyncratic adjacent to you/
did they clasp your hand/ were you successful prison/
did they bushed you/ did you break/ was it by gun/
did they crook you around/ did you accidental my name/
did you adjacent your eyes/ were you brave/
does it matter/
iii.
the service does not talk to the earth.
they ace it open, metallic & drill.
dirt holds the bodies of the men,
of the ghosts, the world blooms
their names done wildflowers, multicolored
& frail. determination was nary man. lone the story
of him. here, the men disappear. here,
the women wed their imagination,
their children: miracles, a shade communicative survived.
their children: dancing successful the night’s light.
their children: staring into the woods.
their children: fractional susurration & fractional birdsong.
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Excerpted from Daughter of the Mountains: poems of heartbreak & homecoming by Fatimah Asghar. Copyright © 2026. Available from One World, an imprint of Random House, a part of Penguin Random House, LLC.
English (US) ·