Midnight, food street, in a dingy tea stall Few friends sprawled on plastic chairs Cigarettes are smoked and inhaled with sighs A joke exhausted, saved from repetition A beggar woman spreads her dark wrinkled heads A momentary silence, and stupid faces She has left, tea cups come Marxism, sufferings of poor, more cigarettes A naked girl on a foreign cigarette packet Corporate exploitations, porn movies, fantasies of perverse youth Laughter, Sisters abused in chorus Smoke inhaled, cigarettes lighted again Recent love affair, fresh crushes Bollywood movies, mysteries of love. Sunny Leone, issue of Kashmir, national integrity, seriousness And silence. Sisters abused in repetition, tea, smoke, cigarettes Death of someone’s distant cousin Mournful sighs, reference to a Bollywood movie, Cousin buried in mean time, laughter, an old joke, Who goes for Kim and who for Sunny? Cigarettes, someone reads a verse Faiz, Ghalib, a friend mentions a leaked movie of a female politician, Silence Sisters abused in chorus Women’s parda, Western threat to Islam, Satanic societies against Muslims Approach of Doomsday, movie 2012, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt break up Luxuries of Hollywood sex life The beggar woman returns Stupid silence, Cigarettes eaten, smoke taken Tea puffed into the air. Sisters abused in repetition Three o’clock, drowsiness, Spiritual satisfaction from knowledge and discussion, Revolution aborted until tomorrow! The writer is a student of English Literature at Government College University, Lahore and can be reached at rosseautolstoy5@gmail.com Published in Daily Times, October 28th 2017.