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1. Windows — Poem by Naseer Ahmed Nasir

   Windows show vistas
   of hearts, of minds or of eyes for us —
   whether they open outward or inward and
   bring light from the other end to this end.

   Windows communicate too
   opens the alphabet locks of our lips.
   When the night knits laces of darkness on the windows
   life speaks up in whispers from chasms of pain —
   windows, then, stay silent, and
   endure the tongue-tied days, nights of oppression
   and eons of coercion.

   Windows are chronicles of dreams of the centuries
   voiceless witnesses of abysmal depth,
   quads and ‘destructed’ houses
   in the time of the tormentor’s forced anlage continuum
   bearing proof of the rusted times howling with fatigue.

   Windows have the heart of a woman —
   perfume, sunshine, rain or moonbeams
   with a single gust of wind
   they unfasten their body’s wings, and
   blow away the paper images
   to waste away life in unknown longings.

   When butterflies sway in front of windows, then
   the eyes on the window panes turn tearful.
   Noontides get soaked
   when the white and red flowers laden climbers
   truss them, then
   the evenings await the beautiful strangers
   filling their fists with the touch of fire beetles.

   Windows at times become adamant on being kept open
   They get stunned to watch the lazuline sky,clouds and birds.
   If they’re kept shut forever
   they have fear of the walls and rooms getting asphyxiated.
   They’re afraid of the residents abandoning their houses.
   They too feel lonely,
   despondency engulfs them.
   Windows are human beings!

   (English translation by Dr. Bina Biswas)