The Ice Cream Van fc188

The ice cream man cries:  

Ammad Butt is leading the Pakistan hockey team with goalkeeper Ishtiag Abdullah Khan. Jungjun Lee is leading the Korean side and Taeseok Min is the coach. Jaehan Kim is their goalkeeper.

Six teams, namely India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Japan and China are participating in the Asian Champions Trophy 2024 and the hosts are the lowest-ranked (23) team in the tournament. India's next opponent, Japan are ranked 15 in the world.

corpses for sale all around the streets no grave buys them the corpses are melting he cries again: corpses for sale no answer. The dogs buy them at bargain prices they cry out for more. The ice cream man has promised  

he’ll soon refill the van and give them 

new corpses as frosty fresh 

as the city. 

(Translated by the author and Cristina Viti)  

BY Chinki Sinha

This is how I cook my grief  

I pick fresh hearts from the street 

The most defeated ones 

With nimble fingers, I steal the tears 

I fill rusted sardine tins with the smell of sorrow. 

Mothers’ glances cling tightly to their eyes 

But I snatch them swiftly, because I resemble their children. 

In a copper pot, 

I boil what I stole 

And add blood that hasn't absorbed 

And sawdust from a coffin that was meant as the door to his new home 

I pour the mixture into my heart 

Until it blackens 

This is how I cook my grief. 

(Translated by Yasmin Zaher) 

Short Bio: Batool Abu Akleen is a Palestinian poet and painter whose work transcends borders. At 15, she won the Barjeel Prize for her poignant poem I Didn’t Steal the Cloud. Displaced from Gaza City after October 7, 2023, Batool continues to write and share her powerful poetry, reflecting resilience and displacement. Her poetry has been translated into multiple languages, including Italian and English, and has been published in renowned magazines worldwide. Currently, she serves as the Poet in Residence with Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT). Those poems are part of her forthcoming poetry collection, to be published next year by Tenement Press, England. 

Click here to find Outlook's 11 January 2025 issue 'War and Peace.'fc188