Learning to Breathe

BECAUSE YOU SAID, "ENJOY!" It's getting harder to enjoy the day When the neighbour's son is questioned For growing his beard, When the girl with a cloth Over her head Is mocked for having no sense Of progress, of modernity, of civilization. It's getting harder to enjoy the day When the little girl With the foreign sounding name Is the last to be picked On the cricket team, When elders warn the young, Don't say it aloud Don't send it as a message Delete everything you have When all you have is nothing. Nothing upon nothing upon nothing. It's getting harder to enjoy the day When a mob murders a man Cutting him to pieces Ecstatic in celebration, While they stay busy Studying the type of meat He was carrying, And they are still Ecstatic in celebration. It's getting harder to enjoy the day When they say They all say They have weapons Weapons to protect the land, (To guar...

THE NEW RELEASE Rough, muddied hands, Innocent, yet weathered, A child of the streets Orphaned and disowned by Love. A breeding ground of emptiness. Round, wide eyes Of chocolates and diamonds Twinkling by the light of the passing car. But a mischievous smirk Yellow from ear to ear Reveals the blackened mind. Bewitched by Fate Riding his thoughts, His hands stretch to gather all All, all that survive, All that thrive All that are happy, bold and alive. While Fate's puppets dance Through light and shadow, Arrows shoot from his once round eyes. Hands muddied and bloodied, Heads splintered and sullied, Threads snapped with the greed Of a child with gluttonous zeal. With a new scene behind, Puppets, curtains fall to the floor, Now showing hunger and laughter and gore! Met by an audience of gasps and claps And chants of encore -  Now in Hundreds, now in Dozens, Until One screams "No more! No more!" ...

CALLING ON AN EMPTY HOME Familiar streets, familiar buildings, An old key to match the rusting lock A stubborn door, weathered and wise - Lift it to the right and it creaks open. The old wooden table, with notches and scratches, The same burn from the spilt milk. I wince - I feel the sting, a decade too late. The same wall with incomprehensible dashes Like ants crawling in zigzagged fashion, A letter, a dash, a number, An unraveled code of growth and wisdom, With dusty trophies as evidence. A worn desk with crumbling papers And jammed books, All holding the memories of a time that once was, A time, never found again. Familiar walls, familiar pages - An absence of faces, an absence of voices. Memories volleyed from wall to wall, Fate decreed, page after page, Now lying undisturbed, unheard. A flood of nostalgia unleashed Through the opened door Into a cold, fragile mind, Brimming, overwhelmed, Screeching with echoes. So...

CHANGE What do you do when change falls on you  Like a bolt of lightning? When the world spins and spins, Making you dizzy and insane, And the blue roof above your head Collapses and shatters into bits, And within each shard you see yourself -  Bloodied, broken. You stand alone in a world Suspended in empty chaos. No life breathes. No leaf moves. No breeze brushes against your skin. Bodies lie dead like fallen dominoes. Death prevails at center stage. But the corpses rise once more Pale as leper's skin, The wind begins to howl - Now cold and biting. Leaves bleed their color Setting fire to the trees, While the moon smirks as she cloaks The world with witchcraft. Change ushers in a netherworld, The mind snatched from the bower it holds on to, Memories frozen into streams of ice, Dreams burning away blinded eyes, And with it, extinguished lies the soul. A mere body, an empty vessel - Awaiting judgement. ...

"A" SPLASH (An exercise in "a") Splash splash - sand at hand. Mama, Dad, Pat and Sam. Play games, make sandcastles, Dance and camp. Races, matches, darts and dashes. Lads and lasses at lake paddle. Warm days pass - sprays and splatters Ah! Happy days! At battle, army lad - shatter, smash. Take all. Slay all. Waste away masses. Shake pain. Stand. Attack. Stab stab stab Face gnashed. Car crash. Splash. Scarlet dash. Harsh hands Scratch scratch scratch. Fate damned. At last, Calm. Stand, stare at vast waves. Strapping, tall splashes. Salty taste. Splash splash splash. A sad statue at stable pace. Advance away, army lad. Waves take haste Rapids gyrate Gasp and pant Sharp rasp Aghast Agape Call and wail Hands raised Sapphire haze! All Black. A final splash. - Maryam Kaleem

A MOTHER'S WINTER I pray to God you never know, My prayers are never answered though. The winter's dark and dreary here, All that's wicked is masked with snow. See you yonder a man so queer Who wanders far when death is near? Is that the Reaper on the lake, From whom I've fled all through the year? With frightful fear I sit and shake, My child I've made a huge mistake. I pray my errors you do sweep, And flee this winter's frost and flake! Hurry now, child, into the deep, Glance not behind, my promise keep. Shelter find and a place to sleep While with God's angels must I sleep. - Maryam Kaleem If you find the poem vaguely familiar, it's because I've used the end-rhymes from the famous poem 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' by Robert Frost, and have re-written the rest of the poem. This was a fun experiment. Hope you like it! Find the original poem here:  https://www.poetryf...