This poem is taken from PN Review 205, Volume 38 Number 5, May - June 2012.
Three Poems
Drop Dead, Bakhtai
Die, Bakhtai, so you can go home, set yourself free.
I know you don't like this game of wars. You think
the stoning would mess up your clothes
and make your little feet dirty; but look at me:
I am still walking, caked in mud and straw,
a small buddha, after the giant ones the Taliban blew up.
You see, the buddhas' graves are still standing,
hollow with the shadow of their shape.
I think they went down in shame for all the sticks,
the burnt kites, the paper planes.
Drop your notebook and fall under the winnowed wheat
next time they crack a shot. Let yourself go
flat dead on the threshing floor. This is a storm of chaff,
it's quick and over with all in an eyeshut,
like the nut that fell on the man's head when he sat under the tree.
...
Die, Bakhtai, so you can go home, set yourself free.
I know you don't like this game of wars. You think
the stoning would mess up your clothes
and make your little feet dirty; but look at me:
I am still walking, caked in mud and straw,
a small buddha, after the giant ones the Taliban blew up.
You see, the buddhas' graves are still standing,
hollow with the shadow of their shape.
I think they went down in shame for all the sticks,
the burnt kites, the paper planes.
Drop your notebook and fall under the winnowed wheat
next time they crack a shot. Let yourself go
flat dead on the threshing floor. This is a storm of chaff,
it's quick and over with all in an eyeshut,
like the nut that fell on the man's head when he sat under the tree.
...
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