The Dance of Political Puppets

Dr. Maqsood Jafri

Whom do you consider faithless? My betrayer is someone else.

If a mistake has been made, my healer, that error is someone else's.

Is this separation or union? I have no news of it.

I am searching for someone else; someone else is searching for me.

The one,  I considered God is closer than my jugular vein.

Seeing the tyrants, I am certain that the god here is someone else.

Whose hand is behind the curtain that makes the puppets dance here?

The wind that blows in the desert, its direction is someone else’s.

Whatever punishment I received, I have no complaint against the judges.

The sentence written in the scroll of life, that punishment is someone else's.

Don’t narrate the tale of my soul’s grief, don’t show me the torn garment.

The shroud soaked in blood, here, that garment is someone else’s.

Whose heads are on the tips of spears?

Jafri, I have no knowledge.

Where the enemies gather in crowds, the story there is someone else’s.

June 5, 2024

New York