I have made a note
of what Mr. King wrote.
He warned: “It’s best to stay away!“
Listen, to what I have to say!

It’s eating your brains!
As if a Zombie.
Listen, if your wit remains,
I’m talking about T.V.

Yes the telly, the box.
Where you catch – the fox.

                                     “It’s news to me.”
                                                            ­            “Didn’t  you hear me say-”
                                             “I’ll read about it, see?”
                                                       ­                               “Well… Okay.”

(Now her phone’s ringing)
How good if she just- read on.
Instead what she’s viewing?
‘Her pic’ someone commented on.

“Why don’t you just listen
to me”, I said.
She threw a mug, caught, taken-
but with my head.

She was out! Out of my room,
Out of my house, out of my life.
Here I hoped a flower will bloom,
I’ll propose, and she’ll be my wife.

Ah! The beauty of pain.
Thoughts of her, in the rain.
Oh! no- not again. She’s back.
All my efforts, rendered, in vain.

**© Ali Qureshi