चाँद कहता सूरज है
सूरज कहता चाँद है
मैंने पूछा सच क्या है
झूठ का दूसरा नाम है

-

Leaves exhale oxygen only in the day
And yet enough for me to go on
But sure, I have it in control

Butterflies, sparrows, parrots, can fly; I can not
A cloud will hide the sun just because it can not not
Pain can arrive and leave on it’s whims
But sure, I have it in control

Anything can choose to pay me a visit
I can roar or beg or just sometimes, get out of the way
Refuse to malign it with the matters of the mind
Only to be solaced by how beautifully beyond myself I am
But sure, I have it in control

Letting go is a thing of entertainment
Or war
The only way to let go
Is to live it so fully
That there’s nothing left to let go of

But, of course, I have it in control

-

So spill, until
Whether it’s the excess in you
Or what it’s contained in, is too small
Ceases to hold you by the neck
Each time you can not be
The God of your imagination

-

ਲੈ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਾ
ਤੂੰ ਬਣਦਿਆਂ ਬਣਦਿਆਂ ਰਹਿ ਗਈ ਮੈਂ
ਜਿੱਥੇ ਤੇਰਾ ਵਜੂਦ ਝਾਕਦਾ
ਹਰ ਉਸ ਪਲ ਵਿੱਚ ਢਹਿ ਗਈ ਮੈਂ
ਤੇਰਾ ਸੱਚ ਵੀ ਹੱਡਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਜੀਵਿਆ
ਜਿਵੇਂ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਵੇਲੇ ਦੀ ਅਵਾਜ਼
ਮੇਰੇ ਝੂਠ ਵੀ ਮਾਫ਼ ਕੀਤੇ
ਸੱਚ ਝੂਠ ਇੱਕ ਦੂਜੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਰਿੜਕੀ ਜਾਂਦੇ
ਮੈਂ ਰਿੜਦੀ ਖੁੜਦੀ ਝਾੜਦੀ ਜਾਵਾਂ
ਕਿਤੇ ਤਾਂ ਹੱਸਦੀ ਹੋਵੇਂਗੀ ਮੈਨੂੰ ਵੇਖ ਕੇ
ਤੇਰੇ ਵਰਗਾ ਇਸ਼ਕ ਮੈਨੂੰ ਸਖਾਉਣਾ ਨਹੀਂ
ਮੈਂ ਡਰਦੀ, ਮੈਨੂੰ ਇਸ਼ਕ਼ ਹੋਣ ਦੀ ਲੋਰ ਏ

-

Whatever feels right intuitively, eventually makes sense rationally too. The challenge is to differentiate the intuition from coping.

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ਦੱਸ ਅਮ੍ਰਿਤਾ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਜਰਾਂ ਇਸ ਪੀੜ ਨੂੰ
ਨਾ ਜਾਣ ਕੇ ਜਰਨਾ ਔਖਾ ਸੀ
ਜਾਣ ਕੇ ਜੀਣਾ ਔਖਾ ਹੈ
ਤੇ ਹੋਰ ਕੋਈ ਜੀਣਾ ਮਨਜ਼ੂਰ ਵੀ ਨਹੀ
ਇਹ ਪੀੜ ਤੇ ਸਾਹ ਤੋਂ ਘੱਟ ਵੀ ਨਹੀ
ਤੂੰ ਜਰਿਆ ਏ ਤੇ ਜੀਆ ਏ
ਦੱਸ ਅਮ੍ਰਿਤਾ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਜਰਾਂ ਇਸ ਪੀੜ ਨੂੰ
ਮੈਂ ਅਮ੍ਰਿਤਾ ਨਹੀ ਬਣਨਾ ਸੀ

-

I have quite a low appetite
But a very specific one

One honey toast
A circle in the center
A dot at each corner

Moderately starry nights
No star brighter than the other
Or lighter than the moon, in a shape
Anything but symmetrical

A human image like prayer itself
Bubbling a truth I can not refuse
And it’s ruthless destruction
At the hint of my lies

I eat the two spoonfuls worth the taste
And I am fed for life

-

Everything that happens to me
Becomes a call
To slow down a bit more

And in that spare of a moment
The breath, the body and
What they do to each other

The gulp of air that reaches the waist
Spreads itself throughout
And holds it firm through the shakiness
While it learns to calm down

The calm of the waist
Quivering the breath on it’s way back
Holding witness for the long unsettling journey that it took
Just because it knew not how not to

Everything in nature is a slow romance
And tells me there’s no rush at all

-

Can I please love
a little more than I know how to?
Topple the tables
Overheat the pans
Burst the drainage pipes
I have a broken sense of where things end and begin
And wisdom always arrives a day late
What happened in a moment, belongs to that moment
Except that this time, the wisdom arrived
Only a couple of years late
I weep at my naivety, innocence and wishfulness
I absolutely suck at being a human
It will pass

-

If I could
I would, never use words
What I say is not what is,
which burns and disappears
the moment I attempt
to trap it in meaning
The ashes incinerate my gut
and swirl the intestines
till I arrange them in
something resembling my shivering body
All articulation is a lie

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