Haiku Effects on September 11, 2019Alone on my way– friendless and foreign in the sunset of my day. Solitude of the fight stretched over years and always—fading light. A fever parted—and all the dawns break in the autumn of my fall.
The kingdom of Heaven on September 2, 2019Alone in my condition neither friends nor Fridays the city of shades exists in me and gazing through metal shafts of view I rest confused wherever I peer I see a giant eye-ball scrutinizing me. I drop my eyes like ‘Pindi maidens to run up against concrete and clay that bakes me in. Can spiders […]
The purpose of life? on August 25, 2019What is the purpose of life? why are we here? the answers are all around us the Greeks aimed for happiness Aristotle even listed eleven virtues that would help achieve happiness he pointed to the Golden Mean the Abrahamic faiths Jews, Christians and Muslims believe it is to worship the Abrahamic God to be good […]
The Headmaster on August 18, 2019When he bulges his eye as the orbed sun just over the morning hill he frightens me and I contract to the detumescence of my fresher days the Headmasters grip lies unbroken though carrying the cancer of time on his crooked back like my forgotten friend Quasimodo and when he smiles I relief in toykind […]
Old Age on August 10, 2019A blessing. A curse. Squeaking and squawking all day Short of breath And patience. With the trips to the doctors And restroom The high bills for medicines. As if nature is Hinting It is time to go. You begin to wonder Maybe Mother Nature knows best. But in the grey dullness of the day There […]
An I on August 4, 2019Just by me sat a slab of marble and a thin blue chest in my flame. In front, an eagle. Splattered feather and gore on the cypress wall. In the Quran the sword of Omar curved in agony. Above: an invisible electric fan streaked breeze inconsequently and senselessly. And I was in the marble stone […]
The Path on July 27, 2019Like my Sunni ancestors Inspired by the blood and traditions of the Prophet I am on a journey With others walking along side Some taking the help of imams and ayatollahs Other the law of Moses or the love of Jesus Yonder I see those who find the divine in the Ganga Or on top […]
Prospects on July 23, 2019Suffering from the Siddharta syndrome modern urban man confronts his prospects: secure with wife, child, house and car. Serenity is what we strive for; survival what we settle on suspended somewhere between the two with a confusing backdrop of various cultural influences we invariably, ultimately settle for survival: perhaps because it is physically comfortable perhaps […]
On Judgment Day on July 13, 2019I wrote this poem for my daughter a decade ago. She now faces a serious medical situation. I request the reader to heed a father’s plea and offer a prayer for her recovery and well-being. On Judgment Day I stand before God On His mighty throne On a hot dusty plain. Around me Multitudes of […]
Major Sabir Kamal: the last stand on July 5, 2019Kingdoms fell cosmos and comets crashed and the sun turned over in its thrice-told tale of terror and this son of Sialkot stood thigh-high in gore and gut held off the shining hordes held them this magnificent shield while others may retreat while something of the ancient myth be yet retrieved stood there grim as […]