Walking on Embers – A Long Poem
Living in today’s society
Is like walking on embers,
A perpetual burn,
A relentless trial.
No sign of transformation,
No hope for change in the social fabric,
Only a landscape riddled with evils,
Shadowed by devils lurking in every corner.
My fire-walk has persisted through millennia,
Embers scattered in shallow trenches,
A bed of hot coals beneath my feet,
Each step an act of silent defiance.
Sometimes I slow,
Careful to spare my bare skin,
A cautious pause amid the flames.
But slowing isn’t relief;
It’s a false refuge,
For the end of this journey
Still remains distant, obscured by smoke.
I must press on,
Walking still on fire,
Knowing my feet are destined to burn,
Yet unable to cease the walk
Through the inferno of a broken society.
The evils thrive with hidden grace,
Wearing a thousand nameless face.
Devils dine at golden feasts,
While I walk fire, seeking peace.
Sometimes I slow—
Then I run, but speed deceives,
The fire clings like autumn leaves.
No finish line, no cooling stream,
Just endless heat, and broken dream.
This is my journey, forged by time,
A millennial path of soot and grime.
No miracle to lift this curse,
Each step a verse in a burning verse.
Yet still I walk, I do not fall—
Though flames consume, I heed the call.
To walk through fire is to survive,
To burn, and still remain alive.
I continue walking on fire
Not to escape but to remember
Pain proves I was here.
The fire doesn’t chase.
It waits.
It knows I’ll come back.
This is how I earn each breath.
Not with healing,
But with friction.
You think fire screams.
It doesn’t.
It hums, like a neon sign in a forgotten alley.
I walk not because I’m brave.
I walk because stillness would be worse.
You’d think I’d get used to it,
This burning
But every step is a fresh confession.
I don’t want rescue.
I want to feel the edge.
To remember that pain is proof,
That I’m still awake.
I walk
In the silence we’ve built
The kind that hums beneath electric lights
And flickers
Between headlines and sighs.
There are no gods here.
No miracles.
Only buildings that lean like tired elders,
Built from ash,
Still pretending to be stone.
And so I walk.
Sometimes slowly,
Because the pain demands attention,
Each step a sermon,
Each burn a truth I never asked for.
Other times,
I run.
But the fire follows.
It clings
Like stories we tell ourselves
To sleep at night.
There is no finish line.
No cool stream waiting beyond the bend.
Just more heat.
Just more sky.
Just more walking.
This is what it means
To live with eyes open.
To know there is no rescue.
To choose the fire anyway.
I do not walk for glory.
I do not walk to be healed.
I walk
Because to stop
Would be to forget
That I was ever alive.
_____________
Light in the Darkness
By Nasir Aijaz
One day, there will be light in the darkness,
A dawn to break this endless night.
Though shadows stretch without a mercy,
I walk alone, yet hold on tight.
A tunnel deep, so cold and hollow,
No stars above, no signs ahead,
Yet every step, though faint and faltered,
Is guided by the hope I’ve fed.
The walls may whisper doubt and sorrow,
The silence press upon my chest,
But still I move, with dreams unbroken,
A quiet fire within my breast.
No map, no voice, no hand to lead me,
No promise written in the sky,
And yet, I trust the dark is fleeting,
And light will come — by and by.
For faith is not in what we witness,
But in what we choose to see:
A distant spark, a gleam of purpose,
A truth that sets the spirit free.
One day, there will be light in the darkness,
And all this pain will turn to peace.
I’ll step into that warm horizon—
And find the place where burdens cease.
_________________
Introduction
Nasir Aijaz, based in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province of Pakistan, is a senior award-winning and Gold Medalist journalist having served in the field of journalism for half a century in senior positions like editor and managing editor. He also worked as a TV Anchor for over a decade and conducted some 400 programs besides appearing as analyst in several current affairs programs on TV and Radio channels. He is the award-winning author of ten books on history, language, literature, travelogue, translations from English literature, and biography. One of his books, a translation of poetry of an Egyptian poet, has been published in Cairo. About a dozen other books are unpublished.
Besides, he has written over 500 articles in English, Urdu and Sindhi, the native language of Sindh. He is editor of Sindh Courier, an online magazine and represents The AsiaN, an online news service of South Korea with regular contribution for eleven years. Dozens of his articles have been published in South Korea while many of his articles have also been translated in Arabic and Korean languages. Some of his English articles were published in Singapore and India and Nigeria. He writes poetry in his native language Sindhi as well as in English. Some of his poems have been translated in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Malayalam, Albanian, Italian, Greek, Arabic and some other languages published in Egypt, Abu Dhabi, Iraq, Bangladesh, India, Kosovo, USA, Tajikistan, Greece, Italy, Germany, and some other countries. He has visited some ten Asian countries and attended international seminars. He was adjudged one of the Top 20 journalists of Asia by a Philippines-based magazine. He has received several appreciation certificates from international organizations for his literary services.