Pakistani Girl Stands First in Poetry Contest

Sobia Saleem, a young Pakistani-American girl who graduated from the Orange Coast College this month, won the first prize for her poem ‘Dada’ in a poetry contest organized by the City of Fountain Valley, California. Last year, Sobia won the second prize for her poem ‘Dadi’. Her parents, Asma and Saleem, feel “very proud of our daughter Sobia and would like to share her prize-winning poems with all our near and dear ones.”

 

Dada
He stood there,
My father’s father.
He looked through the
Glazed translucent door,
Out to the yard,
Our the backyard,
Out to the world,
Into his mind.
He stood there,
My father’s father,
Raising his first finger
To the top of that glazed glass door,
Streaking it—
Scratching lines into the density
So that he could see through
To the backyard
Like a white fog-washed fence.
He stood there,
My father’s father,
Looking through the lines
Seeing through the lines.
He looked out into the world
But saw into his mind
For by drawing those lines
He had crossed the line.

 

 

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