{"id":3231,"date":"2013-11-29T21:13:14","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T21:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3231"},"modified":"2013-12-15T21:22:32","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T21:22:32","slug":"moniza-alvi-2-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3231","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
\nBetter By Far\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

By bus?
\n 
\nBetter by far a magic carpet,
\nfinely knotted, richer
\n 
\nthan blood, broad enough
\nto keep the family together,
\n 
\nislanded, apart
\nfrom every danger,
\n 
\njourneying smoothly
\nacross the unsegmented sky \u2013
\n 
\nnot in the cauldron of summer,
\nbut in the fresher feel
\n 
\nof the last of winter,
\nthe lucid mornings,
\n 
\nthe greeny tinge
\nof the evening air,
\n 
\nNehru to wave them on
\nand Jinnah to welcome them \u2013
\n 
\nmy grandmother, her pots and pans,
\nher lamp close by,
\n 
\nher parcels of layered clothes,
\nlike mattresses,
\n 
\nAhmed and Athar jostling for space,
\nRahila, Jamila, Shehana,
\n 
\nthe \u2018little\u2019 sisters,
\na conspiracy of three,
\n 
\nwith names, like mine
\nall ending in \u2018a\u2019, young girls,
\n 
\ncross-legged, daydreaming,
\ndisentangling hello from goodbye.
\n 
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not The Thousand And One Nights <\/b><\/p>\n

 
\nNot the thousand and one nights
\nbut the thousand and one fears
\n 
\neach one as full
\nas a night.
\n 
\nFear stuck to the travellers,
\nand the travellers stuck to each other.
\n 
\nA single entity, a country in embryo
\nhurtling down the road,
\n 
\nIts destination \u2013
\nmorning.
\n 
\n 
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Better By Far\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 By bus?   Better by far a magic carpet, finely knotted, richer   than blood, broad enough to keep the family together,   islanded, apart from every danger,   journeying smoothly across the unsegmented sky \u2013   not in the cauldron of summer, but in the fresher feel   of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[298,299],"tags":[302],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Poems - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3231\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3231&page=2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Poems - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Better By Far\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 By bus?   Better by far a magic carpet, finely knotted, richer   than blood, broad enough to keep the family together,   islanded, apart from every danger,   journeying smoothly across the unsegmented sky \u2013   not in the cauldron of summer, but in the fresher feel   of […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3231\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-29T21:13:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-15T21:22:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Moniza Alvi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Moniza Alvi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3231\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3231\",\"name\":\"Two Poems - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-29T21:13:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-12-15T21:22:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/0c50d6b32253b93df586d769bc592137\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3231\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/0c50d6b32253b93df586d769bc592137\",\"name\":\"Moniza Alvi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"Moniza Alvi\"},\"description\":\"Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. 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