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News and updates from around the Ujima Ecosystem.

April Showers Edition: Regret, by Afra Ahmad

In this month's Ujima WIRE, poet Afra Ahmad ruminates on the devastating nature of reminiscence and forlorn loss.


 

Ask a man

on a ventilator

with scant moments

left in this world


he'll let you know

how severe

the flame of

regret is. Don't

tell me you learn

from heartbreaks.


The enervated flames

expand,

resembling

undesirable cells

that smother frangible bones,

that prick shrivelled flesh,

that jab and

then draw the sabre out,

again and again.


Regret is a

cacophonous fire

louder than cries

of blood dropped

on the ground

during war,

competent enough

to render

you deaf

for the rest

of your

life;


regret fails to

extinguish, 

even when pails of

cold water

(a sip of which

could save a dying man)

or soft-salmon joy

douse it,


even when treated

slowly and tenderly

(the way

physicians clean 

wounds and

drape them 

with milky gauze,


shower wounds with

a sprinkle

of care and a week's rest 

and they will heal),


but the pain of regret

lasts; 


this ache

never halts.


I have grieved

enough to know

you learn nothing.

You slowly devolve

into numbness.


 

Afra Ahmad (she/her) is a writer, poet, visual artist, and calligrapher. Based in Taiwan, she holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature. She writes about everything under the sun: from dark issues of the society to problems faced by teenagers to imparting chunks of wisdom through her poems, stories and write-ups. Her works have appeared in various magazines including Iman collective, Afterpast Review, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Punk Noir Magazine, and more. Find here written work here, and take a look at her visual artistry here.

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