Emerald green

By Tahreem Asghar

There was a bird with a crooked beak

And feathers white and emerald green

It did not sit on the wooden perch

Nor flew above the stunted trees

It always sat by my window sill

And wept as its fellows set off to the east

The bird would peck on my window screen

As I sang to the bird with feathers white and emerald green

Every night the bird sat by my side

While I played the melodies on the piano keys

The emerald green would covet the murk

The time when I would caress its fur

Then came a night when I waited by the window pane

But the emerald green had not come my way

The breeze said the green had lost its way

Then my heart wondered how could he disdain

Years flew by but I didn’t leave the window’s side

Hoping the emerald green would come, just one more time

The only way that I could hear its voice

The window yearned to be pecked by its beak

The piano keys became miserable and bleak

Just as my own soul so dejected in grief

My tears had dried as I shed them every night

But never did I hear the pecking by my side

Never did I then see my emerald green

Never did I hear from my emerald green

Poems forever

The Sun Rising

By John Donne

Busy old fool, unruly sun,

Why dost thou thus,

Through windows, and through curtains call on us?

Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?

Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide

Late school boys and sour prentices,

Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride,

Call country ants to harvest offices,

Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

Known stranger

By Mishal Farid

Let me tell you something, folks

No more time for dark jokes

Let me tell you something strange

That tuned my life to a weird change

She used to be my friend

Our relationship knew no end

We got along so well together

That so deep we fell together

We would stay awake in black

Unconscious of what we lack

Then one day we did argue

There were some questions due

She seemed reluctant to answer at first

But then started turning into chunks of dust

Even left without a goodbye kiss

Ah! The Disappointment that she is.

Compiled by SK