In the Balcony of a Sharrow Council Flat
I look at balconies, the washed laundries,
the simple life of a Somali wife,
With her long black scarf
seems so sure of what she does.
She waves, ‘Salam sister’!
Is it the pills
That dull the pain
and freeze the mind
and numb the fingers
and you no longer enjoy the moment
the wet laundries embrace the rope?
Shirin Teifouri
Shirin Teifouri taught undergraduate courses in English literature in Iran before coming to the UK to complete her PhD. Her research has investigated the differences between the current state of English literature in Britain and Iran.