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 [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, October 28th 2017.