No Visa

full moon at border
a nightbird flutters to west
shot of gun!

first date

white silk dress
sand in her shoes; no
school that day

one last look at her

behind the door
wilted lips, shining tears
an unspoken fear

meeting

old bench at lake
he watches
two moons in the sky!

Late Arrival

It was a cold dark afternoon. At each breath he paused, each step held his foot, everything caught his attention. Autum leaves jumped from trees and started whirling around. "Who was playing those beats?", he thought. Rain slipped from clouds like the tears from the cheeks. "Whose beloved was crying?". The questions he never confronted before.

She had refused to see him. But he waited and waited, and waited, in her city, between the two towers of beginning and end. He saw many passing shadows of past and future. At two occassions, he ran after a shadow but it slipped first from the wall and then from the eye.

Sun disappeared leaving all the shadows blend together in the darkness. A tiny lamp at the corner of street opened its eye with a blink. Under his feet, he could see his folded shadow which looked tired. An arrow sign on the road asked him to move. He took a long walk back home. He noticed the difference that his shadow was walking ahead of him when he left home, and now it was behind him on the way back.

He kept walking in the dark empty streets. In that way, many months passed. Suddently he stopped and turned. He had heard a bubble burst in the ocean. There was no one behind.

He had escaped the shadow. He could go home now.

Stranger in the Sky

The boy stood silent in the open window of 11th floor. Birds were making circles in the grand sky. He remembered his own experience of flying. "Could this be a dream?", he wondered as gentle breeze greeted him with a kiss.

He had this problem. He couldn't distinguish between the reality and what he saw during the sleep. He often had a dream where he saw himself flying like a bird. Flying past villages for escaping his enemies or rescuing people from the water-flood. Flying gave him tremendous joy but he was a bit scared too because he couldn't fully control his flight. Sometimes he would fall down and hit trees and buidlings. Sooner he discovered that flying in the dream was harmless. Then he would comfortably pass through the walls and see himself fall on earth without a fear.

Today the boy was puzzled because this moment had an illusion of being real. The day was setting, and his deep urge to fly in the direction of sun was making him restless. He looked down at the cars and people in the street who appeared very tiny from this height. His heart was throbbing fast. He had to choose between reality and dream. Jumping from a high spot was necessary, this is how he went on to start flying everytime in the dream. "Come, ride on me", said the wind. He couldn't resist longer as the wind took his hand out. The birds were amazed to see a stranger in the sky. He was coming down rapidly. With no fear he waited until the last moment for the magic of flying to happen.

The sky smiled at him and the boy became awake for the first time. A bird flew away from a nearby tree.

-- Kamran Ali; short story # 1
Stranger in the sky (song at youtube)