An independant publication on the cultural life of fragrance.
 


JUL 16 2026

THE SHORTEST SENTENCE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 


BY RAITAH JINNAT




A poem threading scent through diasporic identity, devotion, and desire.




punchline tangy over Hyderabadi biryani / hyang su: “fragrance” or “nostalgia” / bhalobasha: its teacher / under the umbrella back to West 4th / or the gourmand lullaby adhan lulling the tug of goodbye / narikel tel watering the jasmine janamaz from Saudi to BD to NYC / in the name of the same jannat lying underneath the feet of a mother / a supplication of someone’s soul and sensation / where gazes teaching gorgeous mischief meet / rushing jugulars not as close as God himself made a trail of / what He has willed / a double entendre / and then some




The title alludes to the shortest sentence (explicitly containing a subject and predicate): "I am."



Raitah Jinnat is an NYC-born and based poet and writer hailing from the Bengali diaspora. Her work has been featured in the Blue Minaret and AM:PM Gallery, and will appear in an upcoming anthology titled Naming the Lines in Our Palms After Rivers this year.








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