Asad Zaidi Biography

It was pleasant the sun was mild
the breeze gentle a man on foot

could have carried on for miles
without trouble
...

A poem already bad gets even worse.

No mortal effort can improve it.
Effort spoils it even more.
It turns ever murkier –
...

Something was to happen in the seventies but it did not happen.
Strange winds began to blow in the eighties.
And in the nineties what was not to happen, happened.

And so did an entire century take leave
...

On this dead land
life will return

All our language
...

In the upper shelves of the almirah
there was, as ever, patience.
And silence too.
Below, so much lay scattered.
...