‘WE KISS ATOP A MOUNTAIN’, ‘KNOTTED MESS’ & ‘PEACE IS A SONG I HUM TO MYSELF’

Faysal Khan Elahi is a celebrated travel photographer and visual storyteller from Northern Pakistan, known for capturing the essence of diverse landscapes, cultures, and human connections. With over 15 years of experience, his work has been exhibited internationally, published in renowned magazines, and recognized on major platforms. Faysal’s photography celebrates the beauty of exploration, blending his passion for travel with his keen eye for composition. Representing Pakistan globally, his award-winning visuals narrate stories that inspire others to see the world differently.

WE KISS ATOP A MOUNTAIN

We kiss atop a mountain
that we formed with our words.
Collaborative fantasies,
such constructions bridged our minds—
Cars never crossed and planes never landed,
lives diverged, resigned to levied sighs,
I handed you my strife:
I wished your life was mine.

We would have flown planes.
Peddled mountain bikes uphill
and on tabletops red wine’d spill.
You’d have played me jazz, piano
graced with the same hands I held.

Alongside Duke and Birdie and Blakey,
we would have been happy,
fucking for the first time on your couch
and walking through the rain
in Paris: the Jardin; the streets lit orange;
your face in my hands; my back to the Seine.

You let me be yours
with jokes of a wedding in Maine
and in headphones on trains—
All I Wanted Was You—
We could have flown planes,
played jazz, held hands,
the whole thing.

What I’m asking, my almost dead man, is
Do you remember our life?
The house we built alone on longing?
I still live as your wife in my mind;
on this mountain, with hike behind and view ahead,
here I kiss your lips as you do mine.

KNOTTED MESS

So there, blessed were the bedsheets we shared!
Both shaded beneath white leaves of cotton
Hiding from those summer storms we got caught in
We shed most hang ups, but a few were spared

Like mossed 'opihi and stoic rocks paired
You, anchored to your gains, ill-gotten
I, seeking where to place my lot in
And in the trap of moving kind, ensnared

Mid-air, our aho twirled and tangled
With no one there to unknot the strand
Breathless to call for help, we were strangled
Then dropped--on the empty frame we did land

Against protruding nails, bodies mangled
Thanks to that shoddy assembly we manned!

PEACE IS A SONG I HUM TO MYSELF

In this still room, dusty with silence, peace is a song I hum to myself.
Otherwise,
I would be staring myself down in the mirror,
feet sinking in quicksand below and heart racing
fast enough to beat Man o' War or Seabiscuit
in their prime, knuckle-gripping a twice-used purple
plastic toothbrush that, I swear,
I can smell the bacteria on.
Stopwatch in hand, scrubbing my teeth clean, I’d brush till gums dripped blood. Instead, I fumble

around the house, forcing my eyes shut.
I’m closing doors to nothing, tripping on old bones,
avoiding smudged reflective surfaces and dirt stains on the wall.
One wipe becomes twenty
becomes thirty-five becomes fifty. Sixty-five seventy, tally counter in my mind.
I want to sweep up my sadness and throw it out
with the piles of dog hair and dryer lint.

I try not to think of my older brother in the cave next door
or how he hasn't retreated in days,
but all I can picture is his potentially dead body
lain on his grimy bed, sheets and pajamas unchanged for months.
He camouflages himself in the filth
of maggot-filled trash bags, clutter-stuffed boxes
of moldy paper plates stacked on his resin-stained desk.
There is a trail he leaves in the air
when he passes, acrid and nearly rotten.
The air is too fresh, and I can hear my mother’s
wails, the same ones from when my nana died, where at first I thought
she was laughing.
So, I close the door and slip back to myself
I, eternal time waster with half-closed eyes and full bright screen. I, creator of all ails.
I, who tries in vain to mold the dried-up clay of myself in my atrophied hands
while endless cracks form at lipped ridges,
peace is a song I hum to myself.

Jade Silva was born and raised in Hawai’i. She will soon graduate with her B.A. in English from the University of Hawai'i at Hilo, with certificates in Creative Writing and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.