Grieving for Pigeons by Zubair Ahmad

Author:Zubair Ahmad [Ahmad, Zubair]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Athabasca University Press
Published: 2024-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The water of Ghallapur bungalow, plunging from the waterfall,

I swear, you have never left my mind

The beak of the green parrot sank deep into the river

The one who guarantees happiness has left in a time of grief.

Perhaps someone had been singing earlier, but I hadn’t noticed it because I was so absorbed in my work. Or maybe the singing seemed suddenly louder in the deep stillness of the night. Sometimes the sound was loud and melodic, and at other times it slowed into a dirge, as if somebody were wailing in grief. I stood up. Drawing a shawl around me, I came out and stood on the verandah. Because of the tension of the coming day’s work, sleep wasn’t reaching out to me. The fog spread everywhere, and the trees dripped with moisture. There was one bulb shining on the verandah and it seemed to tremble with the cold. I suddenly remembered a saying I had heard somewhere, that military men weep at night. Perhaps I had heard it from mother in my childhood. The voice in song returned. The soldiers’ room was right in front of me, and the song was clear:

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