After the Poetry Reading by Agha Shahid Ali in Florida
(4 Feb 1949 New Delhi – 8 Dec 2001 Amherst, MA)
He read from A Country Without a Post Office,
and thanked them in his epicene way: “Friends,
as a Kashmiri-American Muslim poet, it’s my unique
privilege to read in Tallahassee where Allah is buried.”
He was at once circled by bearded men. “How dare
you say Allah is buried,” they said. “It’s a blasphemy!”
“Darlings,” he said, “words are my tools. I look
at Tallahassee and see allah buried there.”