Assault
In the heavens above,
The alignment of celestial bodies
Is in aberration.
From the mountain cleft,
As from the loins,
With their wings outspread emerge,
Allegories of dark musings.
The mountain peak
Sharply pointed
Like a taut breast.
Under dominion,
Sacred symbols
Planted on the slope,
From the cave leaps out
A coal-black dog.
The belly of the marshes heaves—
Standing on a height with its feet planted,
Bedaubed with mud,
A behemoth beast lets out a cry.
The sorceress, tall of stature,
In her deep sleep
Severs her umbilical cord
With her sharp teeth,
And freeing her coal-black progeny
From her loins, lets him loose
Upon the dark sphere.
Tomorrow’s sun annulled
The sound of Satan’s laughter
Echoing between the poles.
Waiting
With an austere look on their stony faces
Effigies of ancient times,
Stand upon their mounds, waiting.
The sharp edge of the mountain
Is silhouetted against the sky.
When will the horse-riding legions,
Their bodies wrapped in hides,
Come down the mountain passes
And with their ululating cries,
Break through the barricading circle of defense?
Dreadful will be the speed of their pursuit;
Brandishing their broad swords
The bloodthirsty assassins will kill so many
The flowing blood will form a stream.
Speaking in some rustic tongue of the bygone ages,
And wearing round their necks, pendants of indigo,
They will consign to flames
All articles of reason.
When will the suns eclipse
And the primeval darkness prevails in the skies again?
With an austere look on their stony faces,
Effigies of ancient times
Stand upon their mounds, waiting.
More Poems from Raza Whispers… Genesis and Other Poems. The Prisoner and other Poems
Wrath
Under the entangled branches
Of the tree of paradise
Wolves interlocked in combat.
The sun hurling its fiery spears.
From its subterranean caves
Death dispatches its emissaries,
In all four directions.
Riding their panthers emerge
The forest-dwellers,
Green-turbaned.
The panicked flight of the human herd
In vain, looking to heavens for surcease.
In their pursuit, heralds of hell,
Victoriously,
Waving their black banners.
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Asif Raza is an Urdu poet and translates many of them into English. He lives in Tyler, Texas, USA.
Asif Raza in The Beacon
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