Have you ever seen
A flower
Bloom
On a volcano’s lip?
Have you ever seen
A rose
Blossom
Inside a furnace?
I have—

In hot, sooty Daroghawala,
Where a steel mill breathes fire
Day in and day out

Lives a poet.

Shariq Khan is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago's South Asian Languages and Civilizations Department. He grew up in Lahore, Pakistan, and completed his undergraduate studies from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.