Vignettes Poem by Faiz Ahmad

I

An old man

wipes his glasses

with a handkerchief with no corners.

He remembers in circles.

He cries in circles.



II

A day laborer stands on a

pile of red bricks.

He adds another brick in his plate

when someone shouts

‘No color matches my dinner.'



III

A man lights up a cigarette

to live once more

in the span of the cigarette.

He ashes and he ashes

to make sure

he is not dead yet.



IV

A grocer sits within

a big glass jar of himself.

He shuts his eyes

into a dream.

The sun descends down

upon his shoulders.



V

A vagabond sleeps without his stomach

on a dead footpath.

So many cars drift by.

A glass window separates him

from you.



VI

Someone passes me by

on his ant.

Another man passes me by

on his ant

and another and yet another.

I follow their backs

until the ants swallow them.