SHAKESPEARE WAS PUNJABI
On a visit to Lahore
my uncle tells me
Shakespeare was Punjabi.
Reclined on the porch,
I am scribbling a poem
in my lavender notebook.
Get it, he says
laughingly, tracing letters
through the air,
Sheikh-peare?
For an hour he sits
beside me to watch the rain,
recites Urdu ghazals
about trusting one’s
own heart. Later
over tea, I talk
about life in Los Angeles:
how I hate dissecting
frogs in lab class,
how my G.P.A.
cartwheels out of balance.
I love literature though,
I say. I want to become
a teacher. The next day
he buys me a slim
book of Omar Khayyam
quatrains. Scribbles,
presented to my dear niece,
on the first page. Freshman year
in college, I read
Khayyam’s poems
in my dorm room, record
one on my answering
machine as a substitute
for please leave a message.
My first literature class
in Tucson, the university
lecture hall is packed
with pale faces,
Norton anthologies,
and ball-point pens— but
spotting Shakespeare
on the reading list, I taste
Lahore on my tongue, see a flash
of my uncle’s grin.
Mehnaz Turner was born in Pakistan and raised in southern California. She is a 2009 PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellow in poetry and her poem "The Bibliophile" was a finalist for Sundress Press' 2009 Best of the Net Anthology. Her story, "The Alphabet Workbook," is forthcoming in the August 2010 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. She holds degrees from the University of Arizona, The University of Texas at Austin, and UC Santa Barbara. Her poems have appeared in publications such as The Journal of Pakistan Studies, Cahoots Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine, Desilit Magazine, and An Anthology of California Poets. She has been teaching at Moorpark High School since Fall 2006. To learn more about Mehnaz, visit her blog/website at http://www.mehnazturner.blogspot.com.
On a visit to Lahore
my uncle tells me
Shakespeare was Punjabi.
Reclined on the porch,
I am scribbling a poem
in my lavender notebook.
Get it, he says
laughingly, tracing letters
through the air,
Sheikh-peare?
For an hour he sits
beside me to watch the rain,
recites Urdu ghazals
about trusting one’s
own heart. Later
over tea, I talk
about life in Los Angeles:
how I hate dissecting
frogs in lab class,
how my G.P.A.
cartwheels out of balance.
I love literature though,
I say. I want to become
a teacher. The next day
he buys me a slim
book of Omar Khayyam
quatrains. Scribbles,
presented to my dear niece,
on the first page. Freshman year
in college, I read
Khayyam’s poems
in my dorm room, record
one on my answering
machine as a substitute
for please leave a message.
My first literature class
in Tucson, the university
lecture hall is packed
with pale faces,
Norton anthologies,
and ball-point pens— but
spotting Shakespeare
on the reading list, I taste
Lahore on my tongue, see a flash
of my uncle’s grin.
Mehnaz Turner was born in Pakistan and raised in southern California. She is a 2009 PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellow in poetry and her poem "The Bibliophile" was a finalist for Sundress Press' 2009 Best of the Net Anthology. Her story, "The Alphabet Workbook," is forthcoming in the August 2010 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. She holds degrees from the University of Arizona, The University of Texas at Austin, and UC Santa Barbara. Her poems have appeared in publications such as The Journal of Pakistan Studies, Cahoots Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine, Desilit Magazine, and An Anthology of California Poets. She has been teaching at Moorpark High School since Fall 2006. To learn more about Mehnaz, visit her blog/website at http://www.mehnazturner.blogspot.com.
