is it shame of making love
to a low ranking general
that your fingers tremble
while undoing my sash?
silly foot soldier
I would scream in delight
being taken from behind
were your overweight wife
not peeping through the blinds!
It was common in the Edo period for Oirans or Japanese courtesans to have professional names inspired by scenes from nature: “young willow,” “budding willow,” “bright rock,” “spring rain,” “morning chrysanthemum,” etc.
The shogun affectionately called his mistress a “weeping willow” mistakenly believing that she was uncomfortable in his presence.
Anum Sattar is a recent graduate from College of Wooster in Ohio, USA. She won the first Grace Prize and third Vonna Hicks poetry awards at the college.
Her poems have been published in the American Journal of Poetry (Margie), Under the Basho, Indicia: a journal curating literary arts, Calliope by Writers’ Special Interest Group (SIG) of American Mensa Ltd, Modern Haiku, Blazevox, Harbinger Asylum, Visitant, Social Alternatives Journal, Foxtrot
Uniform, Voice of Eve, Notre Dame Review, GUSTS, Porter Gulch Review, and more.