The four poems below and the short story were written almost 20 years ago at the time of the first withdrawal of western forces from Afghan...
The four poems below and the short story were written almost 20 years ago at the time of the first withdrawal of western forces from Afghanistan. It is tragic that 20 years later there is a sense of déjà vu in reading these. The question posed in the story, The Stone Age, finds ample answers in the images from present-day Afghanistan we see today. Clearly, nothing has changed, or if it has, not for the better. To superpowers, Afghan lives don’t matter.
In the Back Light of the Sun
In the back light of the sun
The ruined houses
And Afghan children sitting on the walls
Look alive
On the cover of the American Art Journal
Save for the slight smoke still rising from them!
A More Than 200-Feet High Pillar of Smoke
‘A more than 200-feet high pillar of smoke
Twisting and twirling upon itself
And unfurling above it an umbrella of dense black smoke
Erupted from the belly of a small bomb
And spread all over Qandhar
Darkness descended at noon
As ash fell to the ground from the dark smoke
People walking about were killed.’
In the coming generations when
A grandmother narrates this
Children will shut their eyes thinking it is just a story ....and go to sleep!
Don’t Worry About Khanum, Now, Abbu
Don’t worry about Khanum, now, Abbu
She doesn’t take her sleeping pills
The bitter medicines too have stopped
The way she used to get scared at night
Seeing the flying tents in the...
