POETS' CORNER

Poems forever

Housekeeping

By Natasha Tretheway

We mourn the broken things, chair legs

wrenched from their seats, chipped plates,

the threadbare clothes. We work the magic

of glue, drive the nails, mend the holes.

We save what we can, melt small pieces

of soap, gather fallen pecans, keep neck bones

for soup. Beating rugs against the house,

we watch dust, lit like stars, spreading

across the yard. Late afternoon, we draw

the blinds to cool the rooms, drive the bugs

out. My mother irons, singing, lost in reverie.

I mark the pages of a mail-order catalog,

listen for passing cars. All-day we watch

for the mail, some news from a distant place.

Winter of time

By Momin Jawad

Say goodbye to memory,

The sweet recollections left.

Buried in the soft snow,

Over the winter of time!

The lax panorama

By Maryum Tayyab

Mobilizing the panegyrics,

Devouring the euphoria,

Confiscating the aptitude of existence,

Their disposition reduced to fragments

Still not envisaging the tribulations!

Abandoning the truth.

And getting ready for paragons,

Full of masquerade!

The shimmering sky,

The serene rainbow,

With diverse blue, green, and red shades,

Were wailing!

But their reverberations were ostracized!

It was a pogrom,

Inexplicable,

Irrevocable,

Insuperable,

As their panorama was too limited,

Much bounded,

To envisage the one, having nothing,

But existing!

Friendship

By Momina Hassan

I am your best friend forever, and you are mine,

We stick together all the time.

We walk and talk,

We can never stop,

While the time goes by like tick and tock.

We will never say goodbye,

And you know the reason why.

I know you’re a fashionista and I am a bookworm,

But our friendship term is just as firm.

And I am proud to say

That we are the best buddies on the face of the earth.

I know when you’re happy and when you’re hurt,

So when you’re sad,

I will crack the corniest jokes for you.

You’ll laugh so hard and say, “Ehew!”

You’re my BFF and I am yours,

We stick together like pop and corns.

I’ll stay by your side through thick and thin,

You can trust me in everything.