Ballots Sown, Hopes Laid To Rest
written by: Abdulmalik Mahmud
@Sahal_Pantami
where we cast our votes, where we bury our hopes—
where husky voices of curses, insults, and political slogans
fill the stomach of the smiling sky,
smelly and sweaty armpits covered with yam-like muscles loiter around,
mustaches & beardless faces face the epicenter of hope,
half-wet hijabs on sweaty faces parroting one another,
& drumming chests graced with cross pendants—
stained with dust & rinsed with sweat—line up like rosaries.
red & half-eclipsed eyes look into the eyes of the sun,
crumpled lips sending smoky messages to the innocent sky—
a crowd crowded with booms, clangs, dust…
former youths adjust their caps and babban riga,
fly into shades & whisper within the womb
of their lifted twin palms,
asking Heaven for the hands of peace to embrace their vicinities.
thugs sprint like a gazelle pursued by a starved wolf;
white doves shower over the shoulders of the polling station.
heads measure—with care and fear—the length
& width of their thumbs’ stomach & windows of the parties’ flags,
nursing a hope of seeing an oft-saying gleam
at the end of the beginning of an endless trip.
sunbaked faces of yesterdays are still mopping their faces
with the edge of their overridden and stained dresses,
nurturing their empty bellies with hope & hunger,
covering their bony chests and fleshless skins
with patched & overtired attires,
roaming under the scorching sun
like a stationless ship
& searching for the barren land they buried their hopes in—
a blind watching into a standing mirror before his height.
after swearing-in…
the sun continues to rise & go far west—
& rerise.
- Ballots Sown, Hopes Laid To Rest - November 9, 2023
