Letter to Myself

Abstract

Letter to Myself Mir Mahfuz Ali (bio) Dear angry one, you blow up, then storm out of my lifeleaving my body parts scattered, the limbs beside a ridge. I rush to them before the dogs tear my flesh.Collect the parts but they no longer fit, yet I feel alive in fragments. There’s always somethingthat needs fixing—broken shoulder blade, cracked skull, but who is to mend them? Time will heal me. It schooled its fingersto stitch the dismembered parts into a being with such care I feel I am whole again and attractive again to the point as if someone is ready to eat me without discovering what I amlike underneath my rescued body. [End Page 71] Mir Mahfuz Ali Mir Mahfuz Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and studied at Essex University. He dances, acts, and has worked as a model and a tandoori chef. He has given readings and performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, BBC Newsnight Review, Radio 4, and the World Service. He is the winner of the 2013 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize. His first poetry collection, Midnight, Dhaka, was published in 2014 by Seren. He is now completing his second full collection. He lives with his wife and son in London. Copyright © 2020 Middlebury College Publications