Freedom Alley
Freedom I have come to know, is like a revenant
Waiting to ambush, before you know it
It comes in different forms
In the unlikeliest of ways
Like a melody standing at the altar of a gun barrel
Like an exit on a freeway
Like sleeping with a .303
Turning the other cheek as much as a shrug
Freedom comes in the disguise of an ominous moment
Wrapped inside a shooting star
The shiver underneath the dark canopy of a hundred cold skies
The stutter in a mistake, the wobble in the long walk back home
Freedom I have come to know, is the closing of a door and the opening of a window
The clinking of a few dimes until tomorrow arrives
Freedom I have come to know, is constantly fleeting
Like a dog chasing a car not knowing what to do if it caught one
Gathering parts lying by the wayside never to make whole
Bits and pieces of scattered strength
You win none, you lose some
Freedom I have come to know is a silent prayer in war
Holding fort against biting solitude
It’s never a zero-sum game
Freedom I have come to know is outgrowing an entire life
Silently like a bird on a wire
Like a solitary feather
Tucked in the womb of a lullaby
Freedom I have come to know is conversations never had
Lighting up a candle inside an eternal hour glass
Nurture it and call it mine
Freedom I have come to know, always springing forth, leading to a ghetto of hope As for hope, a nascent dove settling on an autumn twig
As for hope, a sacred mist descending on an infinite forest
A bit like truth, which sprouts like a tree, rooted in the heart of an unrecited psalm Freedom I have come to know, is feeble like life
Paper dolls joined at the hips
Freedom I have come to know, is old mothers renouncing vows of poverty
Kissing their rosary beads in exchange for a new September
Freedom I have come to know, is indifferent
Always standing on the precipice of an afterthought
I find myself running
Constantly running
Towards freedom
Or its lack.
Junaid Ahmed Ahangar works as a doctor in a tertiary care institute in Srinagar, Kashmir. He graduated from Dhaka, Bangladesh and completed his MD in Medicine from Srinagar, Kashmir.