Consumption Poem by Shahzada Imtiaz Ali

Lives become apart from souls,
Walking women and playing children
Whom should, I run to tell?
Leukemia in body, making holes

Consumption? Who could deny?
The down scene, sprinkling like a child; And
Moon, fade away into nothingness
Fears of death. Who could annoy?

A valour turning into velour;
Charms of youth and memories of infancy
How can we avoid consumption?
Struggling sounds, me and my labour.

Hope and agony, precaution and terror,
Here ended all the differences.
Life and death; which one is most painful?
Is it tuberculosis? Is it fatal error?

Could I love beauty? Aesthetic to fears’
Grass falling down, flowers glowing off:
Melancholy killing hope, demise of bodies
Saver diseases bring to eyes; tears

A virgin girl, a man, and a fellow neighbor
I want to move place to place
Catharsis to my land and growing flowers,
Curing consumption, and providing favour.