Poem | Sophia Naz

Poem for a Missing Man

Artwork : Matthew Bialer 

We share a birthday, you and I
and no doubt countless others
on this divided subcontinent
designated as each other's
unnatural enemies

Nations are expert at making
myth-meat out of men
even as they walk all over
us puny ants

They made you a Mahatma
but I like to dream your middle name, broken in two
equal cheeks of kindness, even though
Karam-Chand was deported yesterday
by his fraternal twin

All the moons are
ruthless now, narrow curvatures of scythes
A sea of eyes, symmetrical cemeteries
blind as albino piano keys play on

A martial music in the mindless key
of jingoism tolls

for us all.