My Elderly Friend, Zahid Saeed Poem by Mohammad Akmal Nazir

Simple, coy, and humble yet experienced in wordly matters,
He is a man of strong character though his conjugal life is a fiasco,
He is a loving father and a faithful husband
But his fidelity is taken as his infirmity.
He has a good pair of ears,
I often inflict pain upon him by reciting my poems,
He listens to them patiently and reacts on them boldly.
He helps people by lending them money
And then hides himself from them.
Whether it is his friends or relatives
He is always ready to bear the brunt of their indifference towards him.
There are still many years ahead of him
Yet he wears an elderly look to gain our sympathy.
He is a teacher by profession and teaches his students with same innocence
As he shows us while narrating the ordeals of his conjugal life.
The students take delight in him,
For them he is the best teacher who never insists on them for the payment of tuition fees.
For me he is the best friend who is always ready
To face the retribution of my ill-nature.