Bacha Bazi

[miyako73]

In this warriors' land,
My last feast today.
I shall finish
Plates of sweets,
Baskets of plums.
Milk will flow,
Honey and sweet wine.
I shall fly a kite
Above the gray mountains,
Up in the bluest sky.
Rivers will bubble,
Laughs and cries.
I shall climb
The willow trees,
The old pomegranates.
My dance to the drum,
A wasted freedom.
I shall divide my body
Tonight into pieces,
Every night into dreams.
Some for the mouths to devour,
The rest for the hands to molest.


Bacha Bazi - Child's Play

[hallaig]

'laughs and cries' doesn't make grammatical sense in the context. Last 3 lines has a something but the rest is too wishy washy fantasy for me. I prefer real life. Good luck climbing the pomegranates

[miyako73]

Do you know what bacha bazi is? "Laughs and cries" (both nouns to be consistent with "honey and sweet wine") is not for the "rivers". Every after "I shall" lines are two lines that do not conform to grammatical rules to suggest immediacy and confusion.

[hallaig]

Every after "I shall" lines are two lines that do not conform to grammatical rules to suggest immediacy and confusion.


Certainly achieves confusion

[Delta40]

I would remove 'the' from the last two lines. I don't think it is wishy washy and I rather like it's finality but unless I knew what Bacha Bazi meant, I could not fully appreciate the disturbing child's play you depict here.

[miyako73]

Bacha Bazi is a disturbing practice in Afghanistan and Pakistan where boys, usually poor, are bought from their families and relatives or kidnapped. They are owned like a property by their handlers/lovers/masters. Owning them is a status symbol in that messed up culture (sorry). They are trained to become dancing sex slaves for influential men. There are old afghans who own these boys, who wear women's clothing when they dance.

I just saw it on PBS, and what were documented about the boys broke my heart.

[hallaig]

Aye must admit I got the wrong end of the stick with this one, my apologies. Too much haste on my part. Last 3 lines even more poignant.

[zoolane]

Bacha Bazi is a disturbing practice in Afghanistan and Pakistan where boys, usually poor, are bought from their families and relatives or kidnapped. They are owned like a property by their handlers/lovers/masters. Owning them is a status symbol in that messed up culture (sorry). They are trained to become dancing sex slaves for influential men. There are old afghans who own these boys, who wear women's clothing when they dance.

I just saw it on PBS, and what were documented about the boys broke my heart.

I saw docu on Channel 4, year or so go when they were do a season of short stories/ docu from Iran and Afghanistan. I agree it horrific and scared to think that it a culture thing and law is worth nothing to protect these boys.

[hillwalker]

I didn't check out the references before reading this - so my initial impression was of a child in some Middle (?) Eastern land trying to live an innocent life (in the land of milk and honey) before being pulled apart like a portion of sweetmeat to be devoured by unseen hands.

Beautiful imagery followed by a much more sinister denouement.

H