It Took 12 Years To Write This Poem

By Khadija Anderson

For Aisha

I’m telling you this dear reader

because it still hurts

we women were that close

 

We shared everything

secrets, desires

we called each other sister

 

At the women’s only parties

we hennaed our hands

and drank tea

 

and we stood witness

as our sisters danced out their pain

to the drumbeat of the latest pop music from Egypt

 

When the sisters began to wear niqab

at the behest of the new Wahabi imam

our parties lost the music and dancing

 

And in a heartbeat dear reader

that was the end of the closeness

and the end of the witnessing

 

which was most certainly

the point

of the niqab

Khadija Anderson’s poem “Islam for Americans” was a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her first book of poetry, “History of Butoh” was published in 2012 by Writ Large Press and a chapbook, “Cul-de-sac: an american childhood” is forthcoming through Ethel a women’s micro-press specializing in handmade chapbooks.