Ishrat Afreen Poems

From the womb of the night
A tiny ray of Light was thus born:
Night uncurled the lovely pink fists of Dawn
read her palm
...

Gold bodies,
the girls toiling in the fields,
turned grey in the summer heat
...

That silken girl from the tribe of Stones
Had imprisoned herself in the towers of tradition
In a charmed palace of self-deception she sat,
Listening to the flowers sing an epic of loneliness.
...

I grew
Taller than my father
And my mother won.
...

The silence
now nags,
and loneliness
Chirrups on the rooftop
...

This last experience made it clear to me:
despite your talents,
despite being tall and handsome as a man,
you're still a boy
...

Captives
Arise
rise and chip the mountains
mountains of deed traditions
...

The books said:
God lives in
tearful eyes
sunken graves
broken hearts-
...

Yellow flowers-loving girl,
how long will you fear the girl inside you;
tell me, how long will you fight yourself?
...

Hands, picking cotton - how I love those hands
A perfect metaphor for the love of the land.
They had battled with stormy seas, all night long,
When, defeated, those strange folk, reached the land.
...