Arshi Mortuza

Arshi Mortuza is a Toronto-based Bengali writer of English poetry and prose. She is the author of One Minute Past Midnight (2022), a collection that subverts fairytale tropes through themes of mental health and feminist retellings. Her second book, currently in progress, explores entrapment and preservation. Her work has appeared in numerous literary outlets, including anthologies such as on:LINE and World Poetry Today, as well as journals and magazines across the globe.

Easy read of the poems in the images above:

PAPER CUTS

I’m on the edge

of something deathly —

okay, I tend to exaggerate.

But I really did let my finger slip

along the edge of a page

I had no business touching.

Words that cut —

surface-level, but raw.

And boy, did it sting.

A thin, fine, red line —

maybe I needed the reminder.

Did you think I’d bleed profusely?

Just a nick in the shallowest layer

of my skin —

is all you’ll ever get through.

A moment’s worth of grief —

is all you’re getting.

But in this moment —

it hurts like hell.

Kiss it better.

WOMEN WHO FORGET THEIR LUNAR LIGHT

I think the moon

Is dissociating tonight --

Having an outer celestial

Body experience.

Maybe her alter ego

Is a bespectacled woman

In her 40s --

Undervalued, overworked,

At an accounting firm,

Keeping track of all our cycles.

Tomorrow, she may take on

The persona of you --

And find herself in

Your cubicle, your classroom,

Your corner of the kitchen.

Don’t let the fog stay too long.

Search within --

Find your way back to your

Lunar light.