Ants Among the Pacifiers

Humaira Abid’s “The Stains Are Forever” at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane, Washington, USA. Visited on July 14, 2023.

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Humaira Abid
Show it like it is

Eye follows the longitude of the handle
Latitude of the floor strewn with pacifiers
Not so much a broom as a squeegee

The inexcusable happens every day
Every hour, every minute, every second
The ambitions of pathetic warmongers
They don’t bother anymore to make
Half-hearted attempts at excuses

These here ants
Among the pacifiers
Make no excuses
They roam the empire
Decadent or not
They cross whatever
Obstacles drop
In their way
These here pacifiers
Resemble wilting rose petals

What we would have easily
Forgotten
Art makes difficult
To sweep away

Humaira Abid
The Stains Are Forever

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