A Man's Chest

Still from the work "Picture of an Arab Man" by Tamara Abdul Hadi — Still from the work “Picture of an Arab Man” by Tamara Abdul Hadi

A Man’s Chest

How come no one ever writes about a man’s chest,

that forested mountain and how we love

its bluffs and jagged edges

and the crags in it

where a woman can hide

and forget the city

and be safe

from every fanged and clawed creature?

How come no one ever writes about a man’s belly

that smooth river and how limpid

are its waters running low,

where a woman can wade

barefoot like a Gypsy?

How come no one ever writes about a man’s waist,

that belt looping

through a woman’s fingers

and catching her in its buckle?

How come no one ever writes about a man’s hips

and how the arms of a woman

can girdle and circle them

like a seamstress hemming

a gorgeous dress?

How come no one ever writes about a man’s thighs,

those immense cliffs and how we strain

and shudder every muscle to climb

their rocky sides, foothold after foothold,

up to the dizzying heights

between his collarbone promontories,

where, finally, the earth opens up its mist

and there is a fine place,

far from the city below

and every fanged creature

where a woman can hide

in a man’s chest

—-

(Photo by Russell Cothran, courtesy of University of Arkansas Public Relations Office.)

Mohja Kahf is a Syrian-American poet and novelist. Her first collection of poetry, E-mails from Scheherazad, evokes the mixture of pride and shame involved in being an “other,” with characters balancing on the line between assimilating and maintaining the habits of a good Muslim. In addition to contemporary Muslim women, Mohja’s poetry also explores figures from Islamic history including Hagar, the wife of the prophet Abraham, Khadija and Aisha, wives of the Prophet Muhammad, and Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. According to The New York Times, her writing on contemporary subjects “draws sharp, funny, earthy portraits of the fault line separating Muslim women from their Western counterparts.” Of the intersection of Islam and art, Mohja says: “One of the primary messages of the Qur’an is that people should recognize the beautiful and do what is beautiful. This is not simply a moral beauty but a visual and auditory beauty as well. Conduct should be beautiful, writing should be beautiful and speaking should be beautiful.”