Since pleas, to Allah, go unheard
Souls, forsook prayers, stomachs, still seek bread
Flour costs, more than, faith’s futile word
Fear is, new faith, Taliban has bred
Afghan ethos, rots, shred by shred!

With wax, and brush, they leave, haunted hearths
To kiss, shoes, of Gods, who would, pay
For their quest, of births, conquest, of their worths
Who lost, their schools, to life’s melee!

Fathers, forage work, in dust, mothers mourn, at home
Taliban spits, dire diktats, every day
Each shade, of life, seems, sin-ister, sin-drome
And streets, bane’s bazaars, where, schizophrenic, souls stray!

At last, they find, their, one-legged God
Who hurls, half-dime, to, their outrage
Where, fear is awed, and faith, is flawed
The, Shoe-Shine Boys, Live A Pilgrimage!

© 2021 Vikas Chandra