“No Country for Women
This is no country for young women and others
Where the old men counsel each other how better
To sell the vernal dreams teeming in thousands
Of poverty-stricken bosoms;
This is no country for young women and others
Where the carpenter happily carries a crucifix
To hang my brother in his own lawn
While Mary watches blood dripping down
The face of Jesus;
This is no country for young women and others
Where a pack of people tell each other that:
I was not born here,
I never lived here
Or I had fled persecution
And sought refuge here
This is no country for young women and others:
Where my ancestors dreamt of living one day
With dignity and walking the roads
Like their own.
Judas! My brother, I don’t hate you
Though you desert me every day
You pretend to be my friend!
We were born at the same place
Though dyed in different colours!
Judas! My brother don’t desert me
While I am taken to the cross
I will write on my bosom with blood:
I was born here before God ordered
The Chaos to settle down, I was here when
The first rains washed away the dirt of earth!
©Ashaq Hussain Parray
#Merry Christmas