Petals

03/11/2025

This morning, our city still plunged into darkness, I set off to walk the Brooklyn Bridge toward City Hall in Manhattan. Just like this campaign, when we launched in October over a year ago, I began with only a few people by my side.

But the banner we carried told a story that we have always known to be true, even when we were polling at 1%: Our Time Is Now.

And as the first signs of light began to emerge over the horizon, more and more people joined us — canvassers, labor leaders, working people and elected officials — until we were a movement, marching toward City Hall.

New York deserves a Mayor up late and up early, who works as hard as the people of this city. It deserves a City Hall that’s not only be a beacon of light once the sun has risen and illuminated it from the exterior, but which makes government a light of its own, that people across this city feel at all hours of this day.

I cannot do this alone. Election Day looms. More than 735,000 New Yorkers have already voted, and countless more will decide tomorrow what kind of leadership they want to define the next four years.

Every voter will consider something different, but ultimately the question before us all is very simple: morning versus night.

Do we want it to be morning in New York again, where we feel the warmth of the sun on our skin and the possibility inherent to every new day?

Or do we want to shiver in the night cast by a politics of fear and self-enrichment?

Our time has come, New York. Our time is now.

Polls are open 6am to 9pm on Tuesday, November 4.

18/07/2025

16/01/2024

We might not meet again –
or so I hope we never will.

Yet if for some reason we will, let it be on one Sunday evening, at the old cathedral where we promised to try again. Just like we did for the hundredth time.

Please don’t ask where we’ve gone wrong. Do not try to utter words that make your voice crack and make your eyes scream in yearning, failing to bask all that with your laughter. That would be my favorite sound that was muted and lost along with your favorite song.

And as you might ask for a cup of coffee, I may agree though I prefer tea. You might want to talk about what could have and could have not but I’m over them. I’ve already gone through those thoughts enough that I perfectly know where it leads. To another bucket of tears that should have long dried and another set of wounds to tend.

But I’ll still take that sip of bitter coffee quietly with you, staring at how you try to gulp all that longing with your favorite black coffee. I’ll try to memorize again how your eyes glimmer as your brows furrow when you think seriously. I’ll stare again, if not for the last time, at how your veins tauntingly wrap around your forearms and hands, reminding me of the empty spaces in mine and the cold spaces left around me when you were gone.

If we ever meet again, please don’t spoil things. Let the awkwardness swallow us in place of the cozy home we built around us when we were once in love.

Please don’t spoil that moment though we might be deafen by how our heart beats. Do not tell me words beneath your breath.

Do not shed even a single tear. I might pull you into my embrace again, caressing your hair as I tell you “it’s okay” - when it was not.

Please just let the silence consume us until it’s time to go.

At that day, I might be wearing my office dress that I’ve been dreaming of. I might be wearing my glasses which might have a higher grade, and my dreams might have come true already. Dreams that I had planned to chase with you.

On that day, I might not yet forget how I tried to held you into my arms against your back as you walk away from that room uptown when we ended. My tears may have dried in your shirt long ago but my heart is still filled with stains of that day.

Years may have passed, and so many things may change; but then again, I am still the same girl you met ten years ago. Still in love with your oversized tops, your eyes, and your soul. And for once, for both of us, I won’t spill the coffee and ask to make things right.

I will walk away even though I said that day, “I will always love you.” I will walk away though to me, always means a lifetime.

I’ve made up my mind a long time ago, I will never come back into your arms again. No matter how my heart yearns for you, I will never give us a chance again. No matter how my hands miss yours, I will never touch you again.

So let us never meet again. I hope we never will. But if we ever will, don’t ask where we’ve gone wrong. Don’t ask for a cup of coffee. Do not spill the coffee. Let us walk passed each other, like strangers do.

— Andreah

Sept. 17, 2020

A reply to my earlier work, 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐖𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐩 𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐲.
(https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=941814407307089&id=100044356153479&mibextid=Nif5oz)

Photography: Anne Sexton

16/01/2024

LONG HAIR
Traditionally, long hair was always a symbol of masculinity. All of history's great warriors had long hair, from the Greeks (who wrote odes to their heroes' hair) to the Nordic, from the American Indians (famous for their long shiny hair) to the Japanese. And the longer and beautiful the hair was, the more manly the warrior was considered. Vikings flaunted their braids and samurai wore their long hair as a symbol of their honor (they cut their braid when they lose honor).
When a warrior was captured, his mane was cut to humiliate him, to take away his beauty. That custom resumed in what is today military service. There when new soldiers begin their training the first thing they do is cut their hair to undermine their self-esteem, make them submissive and make them see who's boss.
The Romans were the ones who "invented" short hair so to speak, between the 1st and 5th centuries AD.. In battles they believed this gave them defensive advantages, since their opponents couldn't grab them by the hair. This also helped them to recognize each other in the battlefield.
Short hair on men is a relatively new "invention" that has nothing to do with aesthetics.
But today we often see men being humiliated, sometimes called "gay" for wearing long hair, not knowing that short hair is actually the "anti-masculine" and is a repressive social imposition, while long hair symbolizes freedom
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20/09/2022

সম্মান জানাই জীবন সংগ্রা'মে ল'ড়া'ই করা সকল নারীদের ❤️🌸

28/08/2018

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Imtiaz Habib, scholar, friend, father, gentleman. Services will take place at the Islamic Center of Tidewater at 1442 W. 49th St. tomorrow, Tuesday the 28th, beginning at 1pm. We are asked to dress modestly – arms and legs covered -- and we will be separated by gender. Women will need to wear an ankle-length dress and head scarf. Thank you for your understanding while we mourn the loss of a literary giant.

24/08/2016

Our opening is a great success !! I with my team is so happy. Thanks patrons for supporting Petals and loving its products. Hope to continue the journey in future like this.

20/08/2016

Dear friends please choose and order your dresses as soon as you can as things are finishing quickly. You can tell us about your requirements so that we can match the designs and prices according to your needs.

17/08/2016