To describe such a day there are not enough letters
In describing that day the alphabet shatters
A is for Ashura and little else matters
B is the back broken by the fall of a brother
* * *
C is the care of the orphans left there without care
Despair gripped their hearts asking “where is our father, where?”
Echoes of cries as enemies into their eyes stare
“Father come back, protect your daughters from the fire”
* * *
G is for give, and that day how much was given?
H is for the hands that from Abbas were taken
I is for “I’ll never drink”, and water he’d return
Justice didn’t know someone like Hussain’s flagbearer
* * *
Kinds are of many but Akbar was one of a kind
Layla wonders how his absence does not make her blind
Mothers that day lost sons so salvation they’d find
Nothing comes close to a son given by his mother
* * *
The O is for one, there is one pain that breaks the heart
Pure was the baby’s neck by an arrow ripped apart
Qassim was just like this when from his mother he’d part
R is for Rabab and Ramla whose eyes saw horror
* * *
S is the stranger killed all alone in Karbala
T is the thirsty murdered thirsty with no water
U is unburied for days, and head raised on a spear
Verily Hussain was killed as a thirsty stranger
* * *
“Where are my brothers, sisters and sons, where are they… Where?
‘X’ is all I see on the names that no more appear
Years are all I know, as my minutes are now like years…”
Zainab stands without anyone, calling for her father
* * *
(London – 09/11/14)