Seekers

by Umm-e-Aiman Vejlani

Humans chase prophecies;

they pretend to be brave,
speak in loud tones,

swear by names of ancestors’,
calling upon the scry,

paying in heaps of wealth
borrowed or loaned,

only for a peek into the future.

Yet, they chase away crows
from their windows

at noon, calling their sounds
hauntings of stray souls, ghosts

deprived of proper burial rites.
Humans chase superstitions,

just the way the crow selects
its window for breaking news to;

I watch it open its beak

to make me a prediction
but eats its voice in its throat

before belching, as it watches
from its peripheral vision

my approaching menacing shadow.

Without turning its head,
vision fixed on me, it hops off

leaving me chasing empty
myths, the crow may have

endorsed – probably right
from the horse’s mouth –

message from the future,
about my today.