Khaki | Shabnum Khanum

That drenched uniform with
sand water oil mud and blood,
That pair your size 10 boots
polished and sewed,
That hat of yours
with medal and stars
The paper scribbles unreadable
The time stopped watch of yours
My long lost earring, I have found
And pictures you said that you had lost
I found them all
With your scattered bones
The spilled blood
In the field that you lay
for hours to the death
I found the case of bullet
near your head
Where you dragged yourself behind that rock
and pulled with hands the legs
There were stains of blood from your breath
where you hid
I found that naked man
With clothes to hide and the soul pulled out
Your heart pounding where the insects murmured
If you would live or die
And where you sat waiting for your death
your last breath
and that poisonous lead
Is everything that your KHAKI reminds.

Shabnum Khanum is a poet, writer and an IT & Marketing Professional. Born in a faraway town of India she has closely looked at the life in both its freedom and inhibitions. Her above piece is a result of that observance and she continues to affect the life of those around her to hit them with reality time and again without disrupting their worlds. Apart from this she is an avid runner, reader and social activist she now writes actively for various women issues fervently among other things. She has been published in various magazines and journals. Her chapbook “The Violent Veins” is up for release in February 2017.