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Literature, PoetrySeptember 11, 2016

As heavy as the bottom of the sea

A Hot Mess by Saadia Shaikh. Image Courtesy the Artist.

A Hot Mess by Saadia Shaikh. Image courtesy of the artist.

They woke to find an angel on the beach
as heavy as the bottom of the sea,
as dark as boulders locked in frozen lakes;
a swallower of oceans run aground.

A fleet of barnacles, a host of worms
and gulls and dogs with long legs took their toll.
The ribcage, caved in, huge and bruised and cracked,
the bloated tongue pitted by tiny mouths.

The tail that thrashed, the water-weary mouth,
the crumpled architecture of the back,
the twilight throat — all memories of a whale
sinking before their eyes into the sand.

~ Adham Smart

Adham Smart is a writer and translator from London. He was three times a winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award and has been published in The Rialto, Blue of Noon, And Other Poems, The Missing Slate, The ISIS, and The Salt Book of Younger Poets. He is currently studying an MPhil in linguistics and philology at Oxford, and also teaches acting at Blackheath Youth Theatre. 

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  1. The elephant in the room is a whale – new poem at The Missing Slate | Adham Smart says:
    September 12, 2016 at 4:12 AM

    […] even someone standing on top of the carcass. I wrote a poem about this whale and its fate called ‘As heavy as the bottom of the sea’, and it’s just been published at The Missing Slate. I wrote about the animal itself, but […]

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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