Poem: Admonition

By: Shahnaz Nabi

Admonition

The effort of becoming a straight line
Look where it has brought you
Who advised you to be self- reliant
If only you had clutched at crutches before,
Before the dogs’ nostrils flared
If only you had cast your bread before them
Now suffer………..
In the guise of hospitality
These white mice usurped your granary
Slurped your wells dry.
Your monarch – a soft toy
Awaits a customer
Soldiers -plaything of whores
Religious leaders engage in fragmentation,
Palaces become the haunt of banshees,
Fields suffer famine
Your odoriferous wounds
Putrefy within bandages
Those insisting on the magic cure of incisions
Are sharpening lancet for fresh wounds
Tell those……
Who are still standing on their feet
The time has come to clutch at crutches.

Translation by: Shabina Nishat Omar