​

Shadab Zeest Hashmi 

 

 

 

Coffins 

 

I’ve slipped into a hundred

and thirty two coffins

with 

You 

of the full smile

You

scented with Euclyptus 

and Chinaar

baby shampoo pencil peels

father’s aftershave

You

for whom we had grown trees

for fruit and shade

not coffins

 

For children killed in #PeshawarAttacks 12.16.14

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shadab Zeest Hashmi's Baker of Tarifa, a book based on the history of

interfaith tolerance in Al Andalus, won the 2011 San Diego Book Award for

poetry. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple 

times, and have been translated into Spanish and Urdu. She is the winner

of the Nazim Hikmet Poetry Prize and her work has appeared in Poetry 

International, The Cortland Review, Vallum, Nimrod, Atlanta Review, The Bitter

Oleander, Drunken Boat, RHINO, Journal of Postcolonial Writings, Spillway, 

The Adirondack Review, and is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner and Wasafiri, 

among other journals. She represents Pakistan on the website UniVerse: A 

United Nations of Poetry, and has taught in the MFA program at San Diego State

University as a writer-in-residence. She is a guest columnist for 3 Quarks Daily.

Kohl and Chalk is her new book of poems.