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Plus Here Minus There
grades arrived before my worth; envelope was svelte, silence was stout; quotients marched
out like verdicts while my respiration tarried for permission
plus here; minus there — addition transpired into subtraction; praise bloomed as pressure;
mum smiled with her eyes, sire enumerated with his jaw; good was never enough — better
was always late
at school, they howled future; at home, they said sacrifice; i mastered comparing: sleep
against their dreams, puerility against percentages
i triumphed, i flunked, i triumphed again — equidistant lives on lone page; when paper
slumbered in drawer, numerals kept waking inside me — grading my palpitation; grading my
alias
Hannan Khan — a nefelibata, poet, fiction writer, editor, and scholar of literature & linguistics from Pakistan. He combs through moments of love, death, delirium, identity, and relational complexities. He is the winner of the Native Voices Award 2025 for his poetry collection Isn’t Cooked Is Cursed, and a finalist for the Rhysling Award 2026. He is longlisted for the erbacce-prize for Poetry 2026. His work has appeared in Evergreen Review, Fahmidan Journal, Strange Horizons, Gutter Magazine, IHRAM Literary Magazine, Liminal Lit, Twenty-two Twenty-eight, Abyss & Apex, Winds Of Asia, 4LPH4NUM3R1C, Uncanny Magazine, Native Voices II: The Cry of Creation, Full Bleed, Cahava Literary Journal and is forthcoming in Variety Pack, Spoon Knife, and Broad Ripple Review. Instagram: @hannan.khan.official