Daily Times

As I straggle through the crowded Anarkali

A gigantic demon unleashes from my meek body

Like a primordial whale plundering coastal villages

I gorge on the silver, blue, white vehicles

Shameless Rickshaws with dyed green bodies

Electric boards of restaurants and stray cats

I gulp down into my heart like abyss

Women of different ages with soft bites

All young and old men without walking sticks

Ugly junkies with tattered clothes

And electrocuted movements

Chickens out of poultry farms with shocked faces

I swallow without fear the smells of tea

And battered down testicles on flat pans

Of cigarettes and flatulence of automobiles

I devour all hands and fingers of yellow bananas

Chairs and tin tables clustered out of restaurants

And shoes which frequent shops like flies

Soon all grey and coloured buildings

With lights shining out of their foreheads

And wires extended across streets

Tumble down and fall with gargling sounds

Into my spacious stomach

Followed by juice shops and cold drinks

As I reach the end of the street absorbed

The demon has consumed everything anew

I turn briskly towards the ancillary road

Later, the demon will regurgitate with backward glance

And scribble poems resembling earthquaked city

From sounds and silence of this cruel dark place.

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, December 25^th 2017.