MAN AANAM (For Jeanette Winterson)

Woh Kehti hai,
Tum apne wajood Kay saaye taley
Apni hi zaat ka saibaan bicha kar
Khud usmein baithey ghum ho.
Ab usey yeh kon bataye
Ki furqat mein
Uskey lams ki khatir maine
Kitni baar
Khud apne nangey badan ko chuwa hai
Bukhaar mein taptey uskey jism ki khatir
Kitni baar uth uth kar
Maine apni nabz ko chuwa hai
Uski gehri neend ki khatir maine
Apne kitney roshan Khwaab siyah kiye hain.
Ab wasl ki na-mahroom dhoop mein
Saaya bhi wohi hai, saibaan bhi
Meri zaat, mera wajood bhi.

من آنم

وہ کہتی ہے،
تم اپنے وجود کے سائے تلے
اپنی ہی ذات کا سائبان بچھا کر
خود اس میں بیٹھے گم ہو۔
اب اسے یہ کون بتائے
کہ فرقت میں
اسکے لمس کی خاطر میں نے
کتنی بار
خود اپنے ننگے بدن کو چھوا ہے
بخار میں تپتے اسکے جسم کی خاطر
کتنی بار اُٹھ اُٹھ کر
میں نے اپنی نبض کو چھوا ہے
اسکی گہری نیند کی خاطر میں نے
اپنے کتنے روشن خواب سیاہ کئے ہیں۔
اب وصل کی نا محروم دھوپ میں
سایہ بھی وہی ہے, سائبان بھی
میری ذات, میرا وجود بھی

FOR TATHI

My Father tongue is my father's
But my Mother tongue
Is my Grandmother's
That's how twisted it is
But not for her
Kashmiri was all she knew
And wanted to know
She never understood any 'pairum'
Nor did she ever try to

I had to learn it for her
That was my connection
To her world
And to Kashmir
The language, the nation, the life
Her guttural Kashmiri speared
From Kabali attacks to Sheikh Abdullah
(Post-Abdullah, politics was all fuzzy for her
Just people with party names)
Along the vernacular terrain of her narrative
Lay marble milestones of Moi Muqadas theft
And visits to Hazratbal
Along with her female friends
With hard earned money from 'Yinder'

She mixed phrases and slangs 
Like brush strokes of Gogh 
Visible yet sublime
The obscenities from her tongue
Vibrated like a single chord
It struck music

Where she is now, they say
Arabic reigns
But I wish the divinity speaks to her
In Kashmiri and I bet
She will outwit angels
And joke about their buttock-less backs

A RESISTANCE POEM

How to write a good Kashmiri (poem):
Pick up an ordinary situation
A memory maybe
Or a day-to-day instance,
For power often resides there
Crystalize its flow
Politicise it
Install a fine oppressive metaphor
Carve an identity for yourself
And them
See in black and white
Us and them
Oppressor/Oppressed
(Never go for grey areas)
Praise the redness of blood
Cry, wail and be angry
Cry through Chinars for example
Wail Jhelum
Swag like mountains
But all this in metaphoric criticality
(A good metaphor saves you from propaganda)
When all this is done
Paint all the greys, if any
Wrap it all in good symbolism
This is essential, for if not done
Someday someone will create
A recipe out of it
And write a Resistance poem instructing you
How to write a good Kashmiri (poem)