I sought you
in the silence
of library corridors.
You smelt like
the pages of a novel.
Your eyes completed
my unfinished poem.
We spoke of togetherness
here and in the Hereafter.
I love you as much
as my heart breaks.
-
an animal bows down to God
at the light of dawn.
The wind collides with the sun.
Lions roar as the day closes.
And when night arrives
my pen tells me
it can talk anytime.
-
ताश के पत्तों को
वक़्त की नदी में
तबाही से
बचाने के लिए
सील पर
मसालों का पिसना
अब पुरानी बात
हो चुकी
उसकी ख़ुश्बू
के एहसान तले
दब गए हम
रूह कबसे
हलक में
अटकी पड़ी
ख़्वाब टक रहा
मेरा चेहरा-
I would fill
it with rain.
His Rahmat.
Recite a Dua'a
hoping my sins
to be washed
even if
they are the foam
of the ocean.
There is poetry
in Your word.
Oh Allah!
Complete my poem
and seize my soul
during Sujood.-
Hijab
The cloth flies in the wind.
Onto the chest of my sister.
Around the head of my wife.
If a toffee without a wrapper
falls into the dust
would you eat it?
Do I walk barefoot
on embers?
I’m glad you didn’t ask
the Sikh or the Jew.
Or the priest in France.
Or a mother in Rajasthan.
The woman on the beach.
Strip us bare naked.
Until you realise
that is all
we have left.-
हम तुम
हम: और इस बात पे मुहब्बत हो जायेगी।
तुम: ऐसे तो आपको हर दो दिन में मुहब्बत होती होगी फिर?
हम: मुहब्बत बुखार है। कभी भी चढ़ सकती है। दिन नहीं देखती मुहब्बत।
तुम: तो दवाई वगैरह कुछ लेते हैं क्या इस बुखार की?
हम: दर्द।-
When I have to write on a deadline, I usually end up writing about black tea. I add a dash of lime and sprinkle black salt on it. On Friday nights like these, I drink the tea and wait for the morning to arrive. The lime and salt mix well in my tummy with the beverage and gives birth to my poem.
-
'The night, and such as this, has ways of tricking us into thinking only light shows us the way.'
'But what if I can find a home in the arms of a stranger like you? '
'I'm broken. My soul has a patch that might fall any time.'
'As long as we don't get fooled by fear, it is alright.'-