I Laugh

I laugh
Every so often I laugh

I laugh
When I pick up a stray bangle
That fell off in a deserted lane
In Naroda
When a girl
- A daughter, wife or sister
Of someone dead -
Struggled to fend off
Those whose lust
Killed her laughter
For ever.

I laugh
At the thought
That able bodied men
- those that drove, repaired and mended
our ware and vehicles -
In their thousands
Idle away their time
In dilapidated, dark homes
In narrow, twisted by-lanes
At the pain of hunger
To suit the pleasure
Of people who don't understand
That hunger hurts alike.

I laugh, too
When people die
And people ask:
"Whose?".
When men are numbered
And reduced to data.

But when I laugh
These days
The buds don't blossom
The birds don't chirp
The deserts don't green
Yet the rivers flow

And they ask still
Why don't I laugh.