12:43

by Jamil Jan Kochai
 
1.
Some say it starts with a woman
in a burqa
in a mosque
in his dream
commanding the Mullah to give birth.
 
2.
In the morning, he gathers his students to begin the war.
 
3.
With time, the Mullah becomes a rumor.
No one is certain of his full name, nor of the location of his birth, nor of his age, nor of his tribal lineage, nor if he is truly dead or alive someplace else.
 
4. 
It is said
that as he is
dying either of
tuberculosis or of
radiation poisoning
he is visited once more
by the same woman
in the same burka
in the same mosque
within the same dream.
 
Many assume that she must have said something before he died.