If Only... Poem by Khadim Hussain

Get up!
You’ll be late for school!
Did you wash your face?
Behind the ears too?
Clean your teeth and use fresh miswak!
Comb your hair!

Hurry up, eat your breakfast
And change your clothes!
Walk on the path to school
Not through the fields!

If only….
I was a Maali,
Weeding and watering the plants.
I’d wake up at my leisure
Eat breakfast at my pace
Not brother to change my night clothes.
My salwar and Kameez
Soiled with dust
From weeding and digging
And walking through fields of crops.
The sign of my industry.

If only....
I was a Charwan
Tending the Majjh by the river glades.
I’d lean against a tree or lay on the soft grass
In its shade and play my flute
To my heart’s content.



I’d carry my lathi over my shoulder
Like Mola Jatt’s gandasa
Strutting across my domain
Return to the village at milking time.
If only ….

Charwan: herdsman
Gandasa: an axe like blade
Lathi: staff
Majjah: female buffalo
Maali: gardener
Maula Jatt: the hero of Punjabi film, tougher than Rambo.
Miswak: a softened stick used as a toothbrush