That Will Be Yesterday Xvii Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

There are shades of midnight,
Mid-night, yes midnight and the twilight.
Shades in the wee seconds
There is ‘consolidatio opprobrious' -

You added a demo- before a -cracy,
Anyone will add any prefix
As suits by the muscle
As suits by a long line of inheritance,
As is established.

A whole wall is built,
Terror charge
Treason charge
Wits have given in and the struggle is long.

Watch your son of twenty four,
And a mother bidding farewell.

That will be yesterday
I turned a page heavy with words
To an empty mirror like plane
Where I could not recognize your face.

Only behind the high walls,
Life is learnt. When you will walk out,
To a tranquil afternoon
Of decades of breaking quarries
Of sliced stones, hard brittle and chipping.

There will come a tomorrow
But today, that will be yesterday.

Sadiqullah Khan
Islamabad
September 2,2014.