All Dressed Up & Nowhere to Go

Jamal Mehmood

Is everyone entranced by something,

daughter of Adam / son of Eve?

If you’re not careful you won’t

know what you are longing for.

Your melancholia is a rock

at the bottom of the ocean under

reams of pretty plastic - so

perfect for your king-like ease.

The only way up is in;

the wound is a crying bird

at the cliff-edge. Not wingless

but none the wiser.

Oh should-be steward, could-be

steward, would be steward - Ishmael’s

rope is there, swinging, graspable

all gold leaf and calligraphed.

You couldn’t deny beauty if you tried.

A cinema of apparition is waiting

on the other side of sight, one

long walk inside the flower of your soul.

Everyone might be entranced

daughter of Adam / son of Eve.

If you’re not careful, you won’t

know what you are longing for.

Jamal Mehmood is a writer and filmmaker based in London. His work has been featured at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Magma, BBC4, Poetry London, and Popula. He has been shortlisted for the Outspoken Prize for Poetry in Film and won the national Poetry Rivals. His latest book ‘The Leaf of the Neem Tree’ (Hajar Press) was released in 2021. Jamal is currently a staff writer at Muftah Magazine.