Creation of Earth by Abdullah Qamar. Courtesy: ArtChowk Gallery.
My son
my superlative love
I hope the cells in your body
can mingle well with all the things around you
I hope your thinking
is not limited by east, west, northwest,
southwest, south, and north
Hopefully the differences
always inspire you
Hopefully you will have time to set your feet on the mountain
at the bottom of the sea
or in the air
I hope you don’t have the courage to hurt anyone
I hope you ravenously devour your food
grow up well
and smart
My son,
the world is not as warm and funny as your mother’s womb
but you are universal walker
and the earth is your playground.
~ Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi
Indonesian poet Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi performed her poetry for the first time in 2011 at Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. Her poems have been published in ‘The Emma Press Anthology of Mildly Erotic Verse’ and ‘The Emma Press Anthology of Motherhood’. She lives in Naples, where she is enjoying her new role as mother to her little boy Corentin.
Editor’s note: ‘Analogy’ is published in ‘Ikhda, by Ikhda’, and appears here with kind permission from the poet and the publisher.
