Zaman Hazir
Poet Zaman Hazir writes a Jawab-e-Shikwa in response to Neighbourhood Bully, a song by Bob Dylan that appeared on his 1983 album Infidels and is widely considered to be an apologist piece about Israel.
Well, Bobby’s Little Bully can do no wrong
Last time he killed Bobby wrote him a song
Can’t tell Little Bully not to play with the maps
Bobby’s Uncle Sam will bomb you like the japs
Now Bobby’s Little Bully was gifted a song
He made fun of its words and sang it all wrong
With all his gold he cast the calf
Now he’s got jets that cut babies in half
And Bobby all wrapped up in stripes and stars
Wonders why poor Little Bully’s so scarred
Bobby you say the evil empires are gone
Can’t you hear Little Bully humming their song?
Bobby’s Little Bully’s got sensitive skin
He loves blowing bodies in the wind
He’s not alone in this sacred scam
He’s in bed with every friend of Uncle Sam
They even let him in on Eurovision
A small little nod to his genocidal ambition
Hey Bobby why are you so quiet?
Remember you used to be such a riot
I know it’s hard for you to understand
You too were born on stolen land
But why does it still come as a surprise
Gone are the words that won you the prize
Or maybe you’ve had your fun on the ride
Now you don’t want to pick a side
C’mon rhymin’ Bob give us a tune
The animals will be wiped out soon
You and your Bully can play in the sand
Your blood soaked star flying over the land
Zaman Hazir is a Pakistani settled in Glasgow. He loves stuffing himself into bright spandex and taking on local biker gangs of aggressively competitive 4-6 year olds. Other days, he can be found pottering peacefully around the flat (in a similar outfit) seemingly immersed in some obscure creative process. His links with art, design and writing are unverified.
Félix Adrien Bonfils (8 March 1831—1885) was a French photographer and writer who was active in the Middle East. He was one of the first commercial photographers to produce images of the Middle East on a large scale and amongst the first to employ a new method of colour photography, developed in 1880. The featured print is a public domain item available the Met.