Why Wouldn'T Amina Jilani Write8 Poem by Afzal Ahmed Syed

Why wouldnít Amina Jilani write
for the newspaper
whose sixteen per cent subscribers
spend twenty times our per capita income
on their wardrobe?
Why doesnít Amina Jilani write
instead of bland anecdotes
the numbers of Swiss bank accounts
where our looted wealth is hoarded?
Why wouldnít Amina Jilani report
that Tacitus wrote
Nero had an old fixation with riding a four-horse-drawn
chariot?
Why doesnít she allude to the black Mercedes as Neroís
equipage?
To create sensation why wouldnít Amina Jilani report
that in a reputable airline
passengers are served kibble?
Why wouldnít Amina Jilani broach
exhausted issuesó
Extra judicial murders? Water-famine?
Itís not that Amina Jilani writes recipes
for Noques de pommes and Polenta
Amina Jilani realizes
the Clifton bridge is strongly-built
and her current year was ushered in by an accident
Amina Jilani realizes
that during an encounter with dacoits
the dentist run over by a jeep
is still in a coma

Translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi