Bring Now the Angels: Poems - Dilruba Ahmed

nThis collection juxtaposes text from Google Search autocomplete with the intimate language of prayer. Corporate jargon co-exists with the incantatory and ancient ghazal form. Ahmed's second book of poetry explores the terrain of loss-of a beloved family member, of human dignity & potential, of the earth as it stands, of hope.

Her poems weave mourning with the erratic process of healing, skepticism with an unsteady attempt to regain faith. n With poems that are by turns elegiac, biting, and tender, Bring Now the Angels conveys a desire to move toward transformation and rebirth, even among seemingly insurmountable obstacles: chronic disease, corporate greed, environmental harm, and a general atmosphere of anxiety and violence. n BRING NOW THE ANGELS n n To test your pulse as you sleep.

n Bring the healer the howler the listening ear

• n n Bring an apothecary to mix the tincture
• n We need the salve n the tablet the capsule n of the hour
• Bring sword-eaters n and those who will swallow fire
• n Fetch the guardian n n to flatten the wheelchair, n to hoist it toward heaven: n the public shuttle awaits n the ceaseless trips to the clinic. n To the bedside manner n summon witness: this medic's n disdain toward patients the physician's dismissal n of pain
• n And call the druggist, again, to drug us senseless
• n n Bring a nomad to index our debts n tuck each invoice into broken walls n n of regret
• Call the cleric the clern