Leafy Lane Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

Oriana Fallaci asked the astute
Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali,
What a politician is like?
“The one who can steal eggs from under the hen”,
They have drunk the sea,
Yet their tongues are dry,
While you sit killing flies
Or reading your dejected poems,
Sitting on a stool, hiding yourself
The expression, and while being admitted,
‘Lower down the price of your work’,
And cut it to size.
Or plant the piece of sculpted
Art in the leafy lane,
Outside the window, to block
The pedestrians disturbing my view.
The others shall wash the linen,
On the beds, where
“Little girls go to bed for hunger”,
Or sit before a ‘tandoor’
For free ‘daal’ on ‘roti’.

OrianaFallaci: (1930-2006) An Italian Journalist and political interviewer.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto: (1928-1979) Politician, statesman and prime minister of Pakistan (1973-1977) .

Sadiqullah Khan
Islamabad
February 4,2014.

Fallaci in Tehran (1979) . To interview the Ayatollah Khomeini she was forced to wear the chador. During the interview, she removed it criticizing the imposed obligation to the women to wear it. @ Wikipedia

OrianaFallaci in Tehran 1979 @ Wikimedia Commons