Flight
What is it about Mohammed Ayaz
that sticks in the mind?
Is it how he squeezed himself
into the wheel bay
of a Boeing 777,
found somewhere to crouch and cling?
Is it how, at 30,000 ft in the freezing
dark, he turned into a block of ice?
Is it where his twisted body was found,
in a DIY store car park,
in London,
by a worker - on her way
to load paint tins
into strong paper bags?
What is it about Mohammed Ayaz
that sticks in the mind?
Is it his foolishness?
Is it his courage?
Is it that his family's debts,
were as high as Mount Mankial?
Harvesting the onion crop,
they had so little time to grieve.
Is it that 3,000 people share
only one telephone
in the broad green valley of Swat?
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