craving

by Fizza Abbas

CW: self-harm, trauma

Set squares don't fit in a box;

you always need a compass with a razor-sharp pencil.

Gazing at straight lines on a blurry surface,

spilling blood, deluding ink—mostly blue, sometimes red.

I'm still deciding which is the weakest vein in my wrist

trying to draw lines of fate.

Fizza Abbas is a freelance journo, poet, and women’s rights activist based in Karachi, with over 100 publications across various platforms, including Indiana Voice Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, The Diplomat, Dawn, and London Grip, among others. She has authored two poetry chapbooks—Bakho (Ethel) and Ool Jalool (Fahmidan Publishing) and been a finalist in the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition 2021. Her work has also been nominated for Best of The Net. She aims to have her poems published in 10,000 journals by 2030.