POETRY

Poets are Vultures

Editor’s note: this poem references sexual violence and killing.

They sit

Watch

Smile

Wait for the souls to die

So they can fill their stomachs



Sometimes prey is the soul of woman,



Amused, clapping, whispering,

it's a woman again

when one raped flesh failed to waken the soul of justice

Vultures hold them with their claws, tearing the flesh of the soul with nails

Beak, ripping veins, licking blood, spitting when full



Sometimes it's the soul of poor

Vultures, pretending, tch tch tch with false heart

asking, what happened to him?

a murmur, hunger forced him to eat death.



and then they satisfy their own hunger

by eating the tongue of poor,

spitting when full



Sometimes it's the soul of we are free

young whisper,

what happened to this soul?

corruption, misuse of power, discrimination, silencing,

killed this soul



and then they devour the vocal of we are free,

Spitting when full



Yes poets are vultures

taking bath with black blood of dead soul

Showing blackness on their spits


A
About the Author Angabeen Kanwal Qurtuba University of Science and Information Technology, Dera Ismail Khan · Pakistan

Angabeen Kanwal is a writer from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, and a student at Qurtuba University of Science and Information Technology. She writes poetry with a political edge, drawn to questions of power, silence, and who gets to speak for whom.

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