The Anklet Of Darkness Poem by Nida Nawaz

Wearing the anklet of darkness
The deep black night arrives
Peering out from grandmother's tales Like a witch with pointed teeth
She keeps lashing
The back of my sleep
With her whip
My dreams shudder
She comes like an enchantress
Her hair undone
Carrying in the caskets of her eyes Pythons and serpents
Upon the veranda of my pupils
She performs
The dance of death
Across the pages of the past
She writes with soot
Into the veins of the present
She pours fear
The vision of the future
She renders blind
All my sacred incantations
Turn barren
She plunges a dagger
Into the breast of identity
The mountain range breaks into tears
The chinar grows afraid
And within me
An entire winter of snow
Freezes at once.