What's pest control gonna do? It's Anarkali

By Qurat Dar

Shortlisted for the 2026 "London" Literary Prizes in the Canadian Poetry category

dancing in the walls/anklets breathless in their
downpour./Two heels becoming a thousand./Her
finger poking through the plaster./Her heartbeat
holding court in the rafters./Just a nautch  
in the mortar. 

Anarkali, stuffing insulation into her endless 
mouth./Making stage of joist and beam/palanquin
of the gables./Cracking windows like smiles.
Crowned in black mould gajra/chandelier 
in her sway. 

Body the cask that doomed her./A centrepiece 
they couldn’t help but admire./The father, the son,
and the woman splintered./Say no, & shatter the
hall of mirrors in your throat./Say yes, 
&/you said yes. 

Anarkali, who spun when they said “spin.”/Glittering
plaything, song-footed doll./Anarkali, who bent when
they said "bend.”/Her clipped-wing skirts, her brow 
leaden with jewels./Anarkali, who danced  
when they said “disappear.” 

Betraying nothing/betraying everything./Patron
saint of women too beautiful to live./Locked into
attics/whispered into floorboards/crawlspace
​cyanosis./They should have known it’s faster 
to gut a person than a house. 

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​Qurat Dar is the author of Non-Prophet (Goose Lane Editions 2025), winner of the inaugural Claire Harris Poetry Prize and a Lambda Literary Award finalist. She was the City of Mississauga’s Youth Poet Laureate from 2021-2023 and the 2020 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam National Champion. Qurat’s poems have appeared in Augur, EVENT, Arc Poetry Magazine, and across the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) network.