Tazeen Fatma

NationalPoetryMonth.ca April 24, 2023

What if dying flowers were a time-machine? by Tazeen Fatma appears on NationalPoetryMonth.ca on April 24, 2023.

From Tazeen

It was late summer evening last year if I remember correctly when I actually realised that it was smelling roses around me in our room. A tiny stacked up room that I shared with my roommate back then. Quite unaware of the old bouquet that had been lying around for a while in my room, I had let myself lose in its aroma. I remember taking deep breaths when it felt like I was in a house where the bride has been recently sent-off. It was in that moment that the idea for this poem developed in my mind. The reference to the field of flowers and the tomb came from my recent experience while travelling in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The smell of the dying flowers was more like a story travelling from distant land in the space-time continuum which made me use the smell as a sense that would require listening. Quite interestingly, I was trying to write a one-sentence poem using the title of the poem "What if dying flowers were a time-machine?" but I was failing miserably at it until I realised that the title goes well with my recently developed draft. I discussed the idea with other friends of mine and they seemed to like it. The title therefore met the body of it and this poem came to being. I’m extremely grateful to my friend and mentor Shloka Shankar for guiding me through the process and to Amanda for giving my work a beautiful home.

About Tazeen

Tazeen Fatma is a poet and an engineer from India. Her poems have been previously published by sonicboom, un-stamatic, thewildwordmagazine, tinywords and prune juice journal among others. 

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