Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
'A Song Everlasting' Attiya Dawood, Karachi
Swearing by the name of this earth
I had promised to love you
This very earth has been opened like a grave for us
All the flowers in my country have been picked
And gunpowder planted instead.
Fragrance breathes its last in a torture camp.
The very lane where hand in hand with you
I have danced to the music of peace
There a death-dealer is spread-eagled.
My “garbi” shalwar, “tik” dupatta and “khumbo” I have hidden away in a box
My own identity I have swallowed like a bitter pill
Walking along with you and looking at the full moon
I cannot recite Bhittai’s “bait” to you,
The sound of Kalashnikovs
makes my child get up from sleep
I open my lips to sing a lullaby
And everybody else in the home
puts a finger on their lips
Gesturing me to remain silent
Newspapers, like the nails of a witch tear off a bit of my flesh every day.
Politician’s statements are repeated parrot-like
I don’t want to be sucked in by a swamp of fear.
Song-makers of my land!
Write for me an everlasting song
So that I can break the shackles of my tyranny
and dance again in ecstasy