An Ām for the Firing Squad
Hannan Khan
an ām snagged on border wire
wind shakes it above two rifles
sabz rind warming in noon sun
dhūl lifts from the patrol road
two shadows study the boughs
one kāwā caws & thinks better
sweet scent crosses the barbs
no map follows that sweetness
someone retches on the west
someone spits seeds on the east
the fruit fuliginated in open air
still hanging between two hungers
Translation
ām (Urdu): mango
sabz (Urdu/Persian): green; often suggests unripeness or freshness
dhūl (Urdu): dust; fine earth carried by the wind
kāwā (Urdu): crow

Hannan Khan — a nefelibata, poet, fiction writer, editor, and scholar of literature & linguistics from Pakistan. He combs through moments of love, death, delirium & relational complexities, seraphically tracing what’s breathed and what flickers unbreathed. He is the winner of the Native Voices Award 2025 for his poetry collection Isn't Cooked Is Cursed. He sips coffee & reads Manto. His work has appeared in IHRAM Literary Magazine, Eye To The Telescope, Abyss & Apex, Winds Of Asia, Zoetic Press, Uncanny Magazine, Native Voices II: The Cry of Creation, Neon & Smoke, Full Bleed, Workers Write!, and Ghudsavar and is forthcoming in The Evergreen Review and Cahava Literary Journal.