Long Live Pakistan

As they sway in with their voices
Of change, with promises of difference
Nowhere to be seen, the architects
Just simple glances, just the routine

Celebrate we will, our poverty and hunger
As we roll these flags, across our chests
Long live Pakistan, long live our nation
Only hope, only hope and just the prayers

Where voices are heard, in its echoes
Where promises are made, in its emptiness
Only remains in us, words and deeds
Of our past, the passion and fervor

Like an old wish of poet’s words,
Like an old words of Jinnah and Iqbal,
Amidst us, forgotten and neglected
Only for ceremonies, we call upon them

Here and there, dress up appropriately
No creases to be seen of our failures,
What is hunger and what is poverty
In this indifference, of all these challenges

Stand firm, as the guns roar in salutes
As we hoist this flag, built from dreams
Million sacrifices, the words cannot explain
Reach out to those, most are gone,
Only few, wrapped up in clothes of pain
From 1947, the day we became free
As we stand, to celebrate another year
From Waziristan to distant corners,
Lies there the evidence, of our endeavors

The search continues, for our basic rights
Long live Pakistan, as the voices emerge
From all quarters, from ordinary citizens
In immaculate attires, our politicians
To perform this ceremony again,
With fakes smiles and plastic existence
To perform the final tribute, in its offerings
As we watch through mist of time
All these years engulfed in trail of dust!

Asim Khan