“When you die for us Benazir Bhutto”
By Javed Qazi
You ‘a ray of God’
As has Rumi said for a woman
And you proved him true.
Like the sun you shine,
Twinkle and spark like stars
Like the sky you live so high
Yet live so deep in our heart.
Aren’t you ‘a ray of God’ then?
As has Rumi said for a woman
As you live here there and every where
Who else could live so much, so deep
And yet so high above.
Haven’t you got us cried for you then?
As has Bob Marley sung for a woman
As have been you crying for us ago
It all echoes and ripples between the rugged mountains
In terrains and turfs, grosses and meadows
In summers and winters
In autumns and springs
The whole journey you had been through was not less
Than that of Sussie of Bhittai
And your pain and sorrows too.
You lived and died for us
And how in our utmost innocent and thirst
We the insulted and injured
We the downtrodden people of Sindh and Pakistan
Seized your finger and followed you
Up and down all the way
All exiles, confinements and solitaries
In all Sorrows and tragedies
You and we lived together.
And one day they killed your father
We wept with you that day
And still that wound lives fresh in us
With you he may have died
Not the gallows had done that.
You lived
Lived he with you all along
If you die his daughter
Dies he with you too.
But you don’t die Benazir Bhutto
You ‘a ray of God” Benazir Bhutto
As has Rumi said for a woman.
As the rays can’t be killed and ceased.
Then they killed your brother
We wept with you
And still we weep
And they killed your yet another brother
We wept with you
And still we weep
Your mama lost all memory
We stood by you, to your sorrow
And still we stand.
Now when they have killed you
We are alone and orphans
For you don’t stand together to weep with us
For you have left us alone and aloof
So cold so silent could you be
We never knew
But in our every tear and tire
Chant and cry you live
For you died for us
For you taught us to struggle
To never give up
To never submit before a tyrant.
You had a dream for us
You kept up that torch in all thick and thin
Till the lost drop of your blood
Till the lost breathe of your body.
I wonder
Were you a soldier, daughter or a mother?
Were you a leader, worker or a woman?
In all your dimensions, aspects and rays
For us and for us were you Benazir Bhutto.
For us and for us you were all killed
You were told to give us up
Warned and punished.
“Like Sarmad and Hallaj
You are killed and born again’
‘You come and go
You steal our hearts
And make us weep’
As has Rumi said
I wrote you Benazir
On your 50th birth day
A prose poem:
‘When you cry for us Benazir Bhutto’
And you wrote to me:
‘The beautiful gift of my birth day’.
And now when you have died for us Benazir Bhutto
Who will write to me?
And say me: ‘don’t weep, still alive I Benazir Bhutto am”.
“See me in twilight, in fog and mist
In red roses of Ayaz
In Marvi of Bhittai
In Bullah’s immortality
In Sachal’s truth
In Hoshoo’s slogan
So I am alive and live in you
In all of you who live for people
Bring them a hope
Raise them up from ashes
These insulted, injured and ignored people
As has Dostoevsky said about them
As has Marvi pledged herself to them”
Good bye Benazir Bhutto
You a ray of God came down to us
We the small rays of earthen lamps
Made up of mud and clay
Will try like you to be
As has Tagore said for.
