This sitting, a portal

*First week of Ramadan 2012*

I take my pastel musalla[1]

Match the edge to yours

Flower arches lifting off into

Three-dimensional domes

This sitting is a portal

Feet settled is magic

Next to you is divine remembrance

Tuck orni under chin

Make sure it’s secure

You help me without condescension

As you always do

This sitting is a portal

Feet settled is magic

Next to you is divine remembrance

These days you use a chair

12 hour shifts serving others

sucked out calcium from bones

Both of our hands blossomed with knowledge

Here is our niyat[2]

This sitting is a portal

Feet settled is magic

Next to you is divine remembrance

I look over at the musalla cover

Nani had sewn for me

And I never use

Pearl-beaded, gaudy pink

Crumpled at the bottom of vain dispossession

Later in Bombay I’d hear of her agile, crafting hands

Giving, giving, just like you

This sitting is a portal

Feet settled is magic

Next to you is divine remembrance

I take my time

Wanting to pronounce with my new

Arabic prowess

We meet at the tahiyyat[3]

Turning heads at ancestors

Ghost limbs growing nerves

In an instant

This sitting is a portal

Feet settled is magic

Next to you is divine remembrance

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[1] Prayer mat

[2] intention

[3] direct translation: greeting; last prayer of namaaz or salaat