Long Burka Poems

https://youtu.be/c1gNm21YzfI


When last I visited India almost a decade ago
I recall riding on my brother's scooter 
as he drove me around town,
And I saw fully veiled Muslim women
half their faces veiled, masked in Niqab 
driving scooters,...

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I Want to Plant a Seed of Poesy 

By Purushottam Dhakal

I want to write a poem
Every time
As people happen to die at road side
For lack of filling the stomach.
People are compelled to live a life
As...

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CHILDREN OF LAHORE
(Easter Sunday 2016)


Arms flailing
From
Her
Blue burka,

The woman
Jumps

Like a checkerboard
Piece
Up and over
The white squares

Of bedsheet
       To bedsheet
To bedsheet

Each
Draped
Over a
Red blossom
Bump
Lumped
And soaked on
The gravel dust
Fairground
Floor.

Like a game of peekaboo
Between mother...

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IF YOU PULL A LONG FACE : Part XXIX

IF you pull a long pained face
The kind poets affect and gladly display
Throughout the ages with their lonely-heart feelings in lyrical grace
You might end up Precious Pearl...

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Dear Reader, 
I have studied the Qur'an and it says in 24:31 "And they should wear veils over their bosoms, and not display their ornaments openly", family or relatives being the exception to the rule....

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BURKA
Being housed daily in a cage of cloth
Heavy and burdensome I yearn to be free
As a person in a straitjacket I scream
My yoke is colored black 
It is hot inside my burka yet there are...

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My eyes are veiled
No hint of wild seduction
No hungry look of passion
No gleam of admiration
No twinkle of satisfaction
My eyes are veiled

Nothing from my soul passes through
The curtains of this window are drawn
I peek through unseeing
Colorblind...

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Aafreen Gets Her Fill

By Elton Camp

The sad result of the abuse of women by religious zealots

Aafreen is waiting inside the front door
She’s had enough and won’t take more
Day-by-day she endures being isolated
It’s a life that...

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The Oasis 
I was visiting an oasis in the Sahara, with my dog a pointer, but the night
 came so quickly I had to camp in the car, shared my food and water with
 the...

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IF YOU PULL A LONG FACE : Part XVIII

IF you pull a long dopey face
The least one can in this case say
You don't belong to the eskimo race
Who lament the sun sunk in iced bay

Now...

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Such deep amber green eyes
Stare into me
Like arrows that so delicately pierce my heart
She is covered in a curtain of black woven cloth
Ah but her hair flows like caramel 
She is concealed and wrapped, the...

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IF YOU PULL A LONG FACE - Part V

IF you pull a long face
Especially on Christmas Day
You might put out-of-place
Your face on every other day

If you keep pulling a long face
No matter what anyone might...

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he throws pebbles into the ocean

rings of suspense skim the surface

concentric waves ripple the storm

inside him that nags at his peace


his friend bites into a plum

and cracks a tooth

at a kernel of truth

hidden in the...

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There was no choice
I took the blame
I killed him
Now they can live
Tariq, Laila, Aziza, Zalmai,
They will go to Pakistan
They will have a future
I will go
The court convicts me of murder
I am put in prison
I am...

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Falluja

Who can forget this place?
When the American moved in, they shot 
anything that moved,
families at the dinner table and women
hanging up washing.
A badly wounded enemy, “a soldier”, was hurt,
the only one alive in the room,
he...

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Run!
Where?
Pakistan.
Take the children, go
That man he will help us.
The man with the children buys the tickets
We are in line for the bus
The man whispers to the guard
We can't get on
Hopes are crushed
They detain us
They question...

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The Beheading of Nînwe

Ninwe is the ancient Syriac name for Mosul
(not to be confused with the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh)

Burned books
Dead poets
Dark ages of Mosul

Smattered relics
Islamic horrors
Dark ages of Mosul

Education denied
Blind minds cutting out...

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