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Rizwan Akhtar



























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Rizwan Akhtar

poetry, aug 24, anniversary issue










last winter it was silence that
lead me to that shrub behind
which a thumb was found
like a relic the earth held it
from an ancient massacre
overlooked by archeologists
frost stripped its flesh
a cat smelled and squirmed
we locked the doors and waited
a plumber fixing the pump
hacksaw pliers wrench rattled
something was still hanging
last night a rat’s rancid carcass
made it hell, stopped inhaling
slept without eyes, darkness spoke.












AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO


Rizwan Akhtar is a writer from Lahore, Pakistan. His debut collection of poems Lahore, I Am Coming (2017) is published by Punjab University Press. He has published poems in well-established poetry magazines in the UK, the US, India, Canada, and New Zealand. He was a part of the workshop on poetry with Derek Walcott at the University of Essex in 2010.

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poetry, aug 24, anniversary issue




last winter it was silence that
lead me to that shrub behind
which a thumb was found
like a relic the earth held it
from an ancient massacre
overlooked by archeologists
frost stripped its flesh
a cat smelled and squirmed
we locked the doors and waited
a plumber fixing the pump
hacksaw pliers wrench rattled
something was still hanging
last night a rat’s rancid carcass
made it hell, stopped inhaling
slept without eyes, darkness spoke.








AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO


Rizwan Akhtar is a writer from Lahore, Pakistan. His debut collection of poems Lahore, I Am Coming (2017) is published by Punjab University Press. He has published poems in well-established poetry magazines in the UK, the US, India, Canada, and New Zealand. He was a part of the workshop on poetry with Derek Walcott at the University of Essex in 2010.
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