Out of Time [1]

by Osman Haneef

The Radcliffe Camera

takes pictures of the occupation tents

protesting the War

I returned to make my words soar, not sour

like a sky-rat defecating on twisting spires

the Rhodes monument inflames a backlash

that the University will outlast, enduring like

two statuesque legs of a King of Kings

At a ball, a boy boasts he’s in Tolkien’s old room

What does that have to do with you? she asks

He insists on explaining US politics and its innate inferiority to her

— the American lawyer two decades deep in public service

The Union elects a Muslim President —again

deposed by a coup —again

When PMs change quicker than Dark Arts professors,

and wilt faster than lettuce leaves—who’s surprised?

I confess into

the cloistered pandemonium

— the future marches into the past.

[1] originally published in Keble College’s literary magazine the fig.