Palestinians bled beneath open skies, and silence weighed heavier than celebration?
Poems forever
By John Donne
All Kings, and all their favourites,
All glory of honours, beauties, wits,
The sun itself, which makes times, as they pass,
Is elder by a year now than it was
When thou and I first one another saw:
All other things to their destruction draw,
Only our love hath no decay;
This no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday,
Running it never runs from us away,
But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.
By Abid Agha
Ramazan faded into memory,
the streets swelled with celebration,
bazaars crowded,
hands clasping bangles, henna-stained fingers,
laughter spilling over iftar stalls,
aromas of sweet and savoury hanging in the air.
I cradled a warm cup of caramel latte,
watched its froth rise and fall,
but my thoughts drifted
far from the clamour,
to Gaza’s refugee camps,
where children, thin and silent,
traced their mother’s worried eyes,
while hunger tightened its grip.
How could I dress in new clothes,
savour festive food,
when across the world
Palestinians bled beneath open skies,
and silence weighed heavier than celebration?
The Eid joy felt hollow,
and my heart could not keep pace
with the revelry around me.
By Esha Bakht
The rose has wilted
The sky has shifted
Everything has gone past
Nothing forever lasts
By Laiba Zubair
I was lying on the bed,
waking in the morning,
the body I had no longer held me.
Fast and swift, aloft,
through the shadows I moved,
in and out of the morning light.
I was a ghost,
floating, flying above all,
not believing, yet still
there I was, a ghost, out of the
body’s cage.
Seized with desire
to test the limits,
to see my loved ones out there,
looking for me,
I thought of ways to give
them comfort.
I would haunt no one, harm no one,
just watch.
I would delve into secrets
well beyond human reach.
I would catch a lost balloon
for a child crying after it,
and wait to see the smile
on that little face.
Now, when I was truly alone,
I would do the things I wanted,
and when dusk fell,
I would simply vanish into the dark.
But I would still have the desire
to be human again,
to have a hug from my loved
ones once more,
to seize the opportunity to fill the gaps,
to trust, believe and love,
and to be a ghost just for a day.
By Zahra Batool
Now I think of you and all of your life
Wasted, pandering to the ego of a manchild.
He walked on the water you were drowning in-
Cruel is the man of many insecurities, how astonishing!
Narcissistic, gaslighter who can never do wrong,
A man with a God complex, who thinks he holds the world in his palm.
You apologised; at his whims, you bowed,
Always filled his cup till it overflowed.
Emotional torture, cold shoulder, silent treatment,
Bruised integrity, stripped humanity, cursed ailment.
Hoped for the sunrise until it was too late;
You left everything behind, a hapless fate.
