The Charade

A bird leaps off a lamppost and falls into the sky as the voices in my cardboard living room turn into a neighbourhood seeking redemption. Paisley unfurls across the floor like flowers of fabric and viscose, while I stand with my head bowed towards a setting sun, shrouded in uncertainty. I am both the Tower of Babel and the infidel, illiterate in the language of piety. The prayers that fall from my lips are disjointed and clunky; ill-fitting building blocks glued into place with impatience and ignorance. My father bargains with God and I bargain with myself for bravery—my belief is as vacant as an empty attic. I am the great pretender, reading lines off a script, gazing into the fish-eye lens of God's camera as I confess that I cannot play this character. God understands, my father doesn't, the cardboard living room shakes, the tripod falls, the green screen topples, Babel sings, the devil laughs, the serpent of Eden raises its head 

and scene.

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Zahra is a 26-year-old poet from Sri Lanka. She enjoys writing in metaphors, with most of her work revolving around the trials and tribulations of youth, change, and the complexity of emotion. Her writing journey began in 2020 during the pandemic, and she has since had her work published in issues from Coalition Works, Seaglass Literary and Sunday Mornings by the

River under the pseudonym Zara Conway, where the title of the anthology was taken from her poem, “A Love Letter to a Thousand Yesterdays.” Most recently, she was also featured under poesía internacional by Revista Kametsa and was one of the Top 3 Winners for poetry in Zimetra International’s issue,“From Trauma to Triumph.”