Teesta Review: A
Journal of Poetry, Volume 8, Number 1. May 2025. ISSN: 2581-7094
---
Sufia Khatoon
Cobbler
sitting opposite park circus Zeeshan eatery keeps my sandal in between his
soles and pierces the needle in and out of the heel.
In cross
stitch moves, he threads and pulls and threads and pulls the string on the
loose farma of the sandal and binds the holes – one stitch after the other.
I cup
rainwater in my palms but it can hold only a little –
It's 21
degrees in the asphalt December rains that scattered mud all over his make
shift shop and soaked the wrinkled feet of an old man shaking in the
cold.
Scissors, chains, laces, farmas, brushes, janta shoe polish, torn cloth, a wooded box, strings, cobbler 3 stamped iron beater, chaini, hathodi, broken umbrellas and a biddi tucked on his left ear, while the buses and cars streak in anger around.
The city is like a loose sandal sole –
a cobbler
is needed to needle it together and bind the people to the muddy ground when
the heat strikes, sleepless hearts cry in pain and the rain grenades jolt the
streets into laughter.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bio:
Sufia
Khatoon has authored Death in the Holy Month ' shortlisted for Yuva
Puraskar Sahitya Akademi 20-22 and Ger-mi-na-tion (longlisted Atta
Galatta Bangalore Literature Prize 22). Awarded with Suprabha and Santiranjan
Sengupta IPPL Poetry Book Award 2023, she is the Co-Founder of Rhythm Divine
Poets community Kolkata and the Editor of EKL Review. Her work has
appeared in several journals and magazines.
****************