In a city of tea-brown heat

acrid phlegm stacks in pharynx

eyes search for extra shades

suddenly there is a river contracting sledge

over which mean boats veer tired water

on scorched patches crows land

with an antagonistic intent

the day is a heterogeneity of traffic

complicit in a language tucking tones

of old men killing time near banks

of Lahore’s lonely river hedging Kamran’s Bara Dari

whose vaulted pavilions cusp paradoxical doors

from which couples sneak through tall grass

of the garden finding bodies of nocturnal animals exiled into bones.