MNEMONIC (Three Photographs of You)

Photo 1

One hand to the weeping eye,

(like a poet to the paper),

one gazing the frame.

This is your childhood photo,

the first you shared with me.

You gaze into the camera

like those horror movie protagonists

ready to avenge the murders,

with all the whispering cousins

filling the background.

Photo 2

The one with your Professor.

This is from your University days.

You are wearing the red of the revolution

and the white of the shroud,

(You will say Peace),

squeezing Michael Robartes and the Dancer

between your fingers.

Did the Professor discuss

Ireland and Kashmir,

Yeats and Gonne

You and me too?

Photo 3

You are wearing

that rare smile,

an Aran jumper,

a nude lip gloss.

This is the last photograph,

the one among many

Obituaries,

Martyrs and Missing persons

in a daily Kashmiri newspaper.

It is only 

when looked closely

into the pixlated space,

that one recognises,

the Gaze, the Irishness

the Death, the Revolution.