Nimrooz Nights Poem by Nassy Fesharaki

Nimrooz nights

Nimrooz nights are the nights
True nights, as in books, of romance
Long, and wide, and endless, the space
Dark, black with shadows and the shades
Eyes see, not, and scared…

The stars in sky, limitless and countless
One pickup, stolen, smuggled, remodelled; broken
Driver, pathfinder in road-less and pathless expansion
Fifteen are passengers, two of them in cabin; the rest load
Pushes gas, engine roars, tires roll but in sand; no movement
There’s nothing, but fear.

Song is loud; only words
Player keeps shouting in Pashtoo
“Pahlevan, how could you? ”

He had joined Taliban in Mazar
But later, turned around
And murdered, two thousand
(As claimed)
Music is absent and some say:

“Here is dangerous
Bandits rule and murder
Taliban shoot blind.”

Fear is like cascade
Head to toe and reverse
Money and valuables are hidden.
“Don’t bother, ” someone says
“They will search everywhere; then they’ll burn.”

Now fear is comet with crate.
Some light is in distance, flickers.

“They must be the bandits on their bikes.”
“Hopefully Taliban”
Words and sight and the site are gothic.
It is in, the April, of nineteen, ninety nine.
Everyone is fighting with, against, Taliban.