Tag: Dead


  • A Man Vanished

    gatherings lost in known thingsโ€” men, women, children, by time or willful wish, split into pieces. eyes filled with glistening sadness, pouring pearls, turning edges roundโ€” lips wearing forever-frown. an echo of sighs and woes, wrinkled skin like a crumpled rug, torn and battered from blows of time. scarred hands and a face carrying dead…

  • The Chocolate Cake

    It was quite a nice morning; the sun was shining bright outside my window in that clear, spotless blue sky, and I was still in my bed. Abba already came three times into my room, scolded me and tried to wake me up. โ€œBut why should I get up? Why should I let this morning-sleep…

  • On the bulge of Amira Kadal, I stare at the fish in their basket, murmuring between themselves about their estrangement from the Jhelum that flows underneath, belligerently. Or, maybe, they are just gasping for a few extra breathsโ€” as many as they canโ€” before it is all over; as all of us try to do…

  • I enter my citywith blood under my feet.I walk by the lane, flinched. I run- run into daughters,into mothers,who breathe grief;who walk with their shadows underneath. I see fathers, sonsresting in empty coffins. I blind-fold myselfas I walk by broken homes,unmarked graves,and mosques,where now no one prays. I run into my broken citywith broken dreams.I…