The idea behind this series was to curate stories and pieces that reclaim the love that isn’t always visible. The love that makes us question what defines heartbreak, what defines a connection, how we learn and unlearn, how we teach and feel love. These questions are brought to the surface through this collection of visual works, poetry and text created by women who’ve beautifully visualized all the love you can’t visibilize.
unlearning love
by Anushka Ataullahjan
when honour breathes in the soft
of women’s flesh, and its heartbeat
deafens the roar of unwanted gaze,
when disgrace coils around
larynx like serpents,
disappointment peels acid drenched flesh,
and form sinks into river,
fire,
exile,
wherever our sisters are
disappeared
in such a place
how can a woman love and be loved?
how does she let her edges soften?
to embrace the swell below her hips
to divorce love from unravelling-
intimacy with destruction,
hold herself through the act of making love
how does she become more than a vessel,
for the desires of the men she lays with,
and the reputation of those linked by blood
in such a place
how does she
become
-unlearning love
Photo by Shaanzéh Ataullahjan
Anushka Ataullahjan is a Pakhtun Muslim poet based in Toronto. She once heard someone define a poet at as a person who keeps asking but why? She has never heard a better description of the thread that pulls together her life.
