The Return

(second moment)


It was one long year.

Started with classes on Englishness

In a city crumbling

As it suffered an era changing

We were like a rickshaw

Mother pulling

Me the wheels

Sometimes remembering

It was the year after

The magic days of gardens

Snakes , Bemba and song

Taken away by one long plane ride

It was the year waiting

Because I wasn’t fatherless

Like those in the hostel

Or those at the agency

And when he finally came

The Molana looked at me

“See that light? It wasn’t there before”

And my father smiled and lifted.

by Ali. A. Naqvi