backs against the tide
holding back the tide
backs against monsoon mud
decades of Kashmir tears
swarm Pakistani streets
smother drowning schools
mothers and babies clinging to trees
roaring rivers
oceans of water
every night it comes
every afternoon more Sindhis disappear
and Karachi grieves
and Islamabad has no plans
and Delhi reconsiders karma
these are biblical times
these rains remind us of our mortality
reminds us that borders
as treaties
merely wash away
promises mean nothing
sunlight erases whoever journeys into the night drizzle
turning into teeming torrents of truth
oh! this world cannot betray
nor turn our backs
Pakistan is the wet world
Pakistan dripping endless green tears
golden silk saris used as sponges
steel poles and beams
useless
no structures
basmati fields washed into the ocean
chapatti fires cook no more
Pakistan gushing endless green tears
as the world idles on
till this eternal deluge inexorably shrivels,
evaporates
9/12/10
Delray Beach, FL
(for the thousands who were washed away in the Pakistani floods)