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Thursday, 30 June 2022

WRONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP

We're the travellers of hurt
Each in one's own zone.

She resides in the zone of pain
I, in indeterminacy.
If anyhow messages happen,
they travel over light years
or may encounter a black hole
of indifference, of ennui.

We inhabit the same planet though,
pacing up and down
in our own territories,
travelling over the deserts of time;
hoping to find each other around,
thinking, the relations,
like the Earth, go round.

Maybe, we're both trudging
in opposite directions -
and the world does go round
but with an infinite radius.

Wednesday, 20 April 2022

SILSILA سلسلہ

Ye jo ladki mujhe mili hai
Zindagi Kay kai qbristano se ho kar
Meri taraf lauti hai

Ye jo ladki mujhe mili hai
Ek sadi se
Rishton ki turbat par isne
Aawazon ke chabuk tode hain
Apni awaaz ki bazgasht ke siwa
Iska kuch haasil nahi 

Ye jo ladki mujhe mili hai
Baat baat pe kehti hai
"Aap meri baat samjh rahe ho"
"Samjh aayi aapko meri baat"
Meri pur-hayat, pur-hairat khamoshi dekh kar
Use lgata hai
Mai bhi ek mazaar hoon
Jiske samne
samjh ki pukaar lazmi hai

Ye ladki jo mujhe mili hai
Ise abhi tak mai nahi mila

سلسلہ

یہ جو لڑکی مجھے ملی ہے
زندگی کے کئی قبرستانوں سے ہو کر
میری طرف لوٹی ہے

یہ جو لڑکی مجھے ملی ہے
ایک صدی سے
رشتوں کی تُربت پر اس نے
آوازوں کے چابک توڑے ہیں
اپنی آواز کی بازگشت کے سوا
اسکا کچھ حاصل نہیں

یہ جو لڑکی مجھے ملی ہے
بات بات پے کہتی ہے '
"آپ میری بات سمجھ رہے ہو"
"سمجھ آئی آپکو میری بات"
میری پُر حیات ' پُر حیرت خاموشی دیکھ کر
اسے لگتا ہے
میں بھی ایک مزار ہوں
جسکے سامنے
سمجھ کی پُکار لازمی ہے

یہ لڑکی جو مجھے ملی ہے
اِسے ابھی تک میں نہیں ملا 

Wednesday, 23 March 2022

QUANDARY

Like a thunderbolt
While waiting for the rain,
if you happen to meet
the long lost beloved -
someday, somewhere, suddenly -
asks the poet,
what do you say?

You definitely do not ask
about the hollowness of your soul,
the letching, the cravings of the mind
or the sudden collapses of the heart -
the answers to which she is the Question!

You can definitely - joke
about her newly found passion
for leather pants
or remind her
about the kinkiest coloured bra
that you two imagined together
and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

You can only laugh.
Laugh over the mundane,
banal, vapid details,
to avoid the star-crossing - 
deferring the apocalypse.

Tuesday, 1 February 2022

LANDSCAPES

("If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes." Agnès Varda)

LOVER

Upon a plateau of thorns
warbling naked
gazing at the starlit flood,
wherever one is missing
makes it out in his blood

HEARTBROKEN

A wasteyard
arrayed with garbage,
looking upward to heaven,
refusing to burn
amidst the hazy smoke -
an impasto painting.
There is no incinerator for this terrain
burning like a furnace

KASHMIRI

A quagmire of history
where a fecal child
carrying an empty flagpole
floats everywhere,
Nowhere,
while a feeder 
shoved down the throat
dumps waste 

Saturday, 22 January 2022

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.

Tuesday, 11 January 2022

EVALUATION

"He could not loose Sophie",
"Their was India and Pakistan",
"Dairy of a Madman" -
Students keep on confusing
one with the other
as Lover and Beloved
in a spiritual ascent.

The confusion is annoying,
I am still hopeful though -
As long as they do not confuse
Good with Evil.

It's only by learning the difference
they will know,
how similar they are
and what lies beyond.

Thursday, 6 January 2022

Home is a Daily Repair

A pipe leaking - 
There's always a leaking pipe,
some electric fault,
a fluctuation,
the window in the room
that needs attention,
something.

If nothing,
the commode needs flushing
or the apocalyptic dust
through a wormhole in space
has settled all over,
always something -

Home is a daily repair -
of emotions, relations,
of mundane routines. 

Wednesday, 6 October 2021

A Birthday Poem for Your B'day

I wish
you're born short
not tall like Chinar
that takes roots deep
and years to give shade
                                              The world is in a hurry
                                               it won't wait for you

Be born like grass
to be trampled upon
and believe
it's in your nature to be stamped on

I wish you're not born human
but a worm
spineless
and be relieved
of this burden of conscience

                                               Man with a Gun,
                                               and that's the tragedy of this world,
                                               is more poised
                                               than man with a Book
              
May you be born
with ultimate physical beauty
Do some nonsense
in front of your screen 
Become famous, viral
Don't burden yourself with wisdom
Thinking, Reading or other mundane activities

                                               Stupidity is the new wisdom
               
May you be born
filthy rich
and make others work
humiliate them
oppress
and alienate them
so that their parents 
write this poem for them

Thursday, 5 August 2021

12 × 8.5 × 6

A fistful heart -
worldful of sorrows
A universe of darkness -
A flicker of your light

Wednesday, 31 March 2021

"Nakaami si Nakaami" / "ناکامی سی ناکامی"

Salaam un par 
jo ghar kay choolhey ka
eendhan ban gaye
aur phir
kahin na mile

Salaam un par
jo banjar zameeno mein
zarkhaiz khwaab 
ley kar utar gaye

Salaam un par
jo muhabbat ka zehr pi kar bhi
na Messiha ban sake
na Suqrat

Salaam un par
jo wadi e ilm mein
kitaboon key shajr tale bhi
saans na ley paye

Salaam un par
jo saansoo ka phandha liye
zindagi ki 
kachi chat se bhi
naa latak paye

Salaam un Salaamo par
jo faqt
Sada e noha ban kar reh gayein 

سلام اُن پر
جو گھر کے چولہے کا
ایندھن بن گئے
اور پھر
کہیں نہ ملے 

سلام اُن پر
جو بنجر زمینوں میں
زرخیز خواب
لے کر اتر گئے

سلام اُن پر
جو محبت کا زہر پی کر بھی
نہ مسیحا بن سکے
نہ سقراط

سلام اُن پر
جو وادی علم میں
کتابوں کے شجر تلے بھی
سانس نہ لے پائے

سلام اُن پر
جو سانسوں کا پھندا لئے
زندگی کی
کچی چھت سے بھی
نا لٹک پائے

سلام اُن سلاموں پر
جو فقط
صدائے نوحہ بن کر رہ گئیں