The Hoopoe!
Free Verses
Kaleem Butt
Flying over Isfahan
The hoopoe’s eyes
Were filled with tears.
And wondered what had
Happened to the world?
Was it the same world that
Once was ruled by just and mighty
kings like David,
And after him,
Ruled by his son Solomon the
magnificent!
While flying,
The hoopoe heard a cry
O! Isfahan
My dear brother
hear my voice
hearken to my plea
no one else could understand thy
pain better than me
and the hoopoe flying over thy sky
for he is the one who was present in
Solomon’s court,
To give him good news
About Bilquees; the Queen of Sheba.
For he used to fly over my sky
In my time of agony
For thousands of years
I have been the center of
Brutality and bloodshed
At human hands
For silly reasons!
O! Isfahan
My dear brother,
For thousands of years I have been a
holy city
For majority of world’s population
The promised land!
Half of world’s population
Believes that,
An ordinary stone lying in one of my
streets
Is holy,
Touched by a prophet or by a saint,
Here I am
Ruled and ruined by the tyrants
Who want to prove one or the other
Imaginary story
To be absolute truth!.
Throughout the course of history
They had shed blood in my streets
It was only this hoopoe
Who always listened to my pleas!
And always lamented with me
Now it has come to lament with you
O! Isfahan
My dear brother
You know,
What they have done to me!
Throughout the course of history
they have raised
Tall buildings calling them
Houses of their respective gods
And to protect them
They have fought with each other
Thinking it to be a holy war!
From the beginning of history
I have been ruined and ransacked;
For the sake of God!
O! Isfahan
My dear brother
Now the war has reached at your
doorsteps
You too would be ruined and
ransacked
You too would witness bloodshed in
your streets
No one would have mercy on you
O! Isfahan
My dear brother
I have sent thee the hoopoe
So that it might lament for thee!
Please accept this little gift from
thy brother
Jerusalem.
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