29

................................................................................................

Another 29th
will bring another time.
without your footprints
replaced by the same day
the same hours

and another face.

29th
will never be important.
It never tried to be.
It was me who kept count
the times it threw a pebble
and skipped the waters
It was 29.

This last 29th
is made of mirrors.
Songs of the river
sung outside a theater.
You will be a part of them now
and I will count
beyond 29.

Vidrohi's

मैं किसान हूँ
आसमान में धान बो रहा हूँ
कुछ लोग कह रहे हैं
कि पगले! आसमान में धान नहीं जमा करता
मैं कहता हूँ पगले!
अगर ज़मीन पर भगवान जम सकता है
...तो आसमान में धान भी जम सकता है
और अब तो दोनों में से कोई एक होकर रहेगा
या तो ज़मीन से भगवान उखड़ेगा
या आसमान में धान जमेगा.

letter 3- To Happiness

Happiness!
I have watched you sleeping
your breath floating
with the rhythm of your dreams.

Somewhere around you are stories
guarded by wizards,
dragons and time machines
The first story you read to me
was of a Chinese magician in an Indian book

Somewhere around you kittens play
and a betel nut rolls
They attack old strings,
large shoes and the flying curtains
It is said cats know where secrets are kept.

From somewhere around you I watch.
your fingers sometimes twitch
sometimes silence wakes you
the noise of my fears, of a blind heart
the fear of going blind!

Frame

The pictures

that you took last winter

and the years before,

I left my

fingerprints on them,

All this while

did you happen to notice?

that i haven't rubbed them off!

There were some pictures

that I stole

from your neighbours,

some I stole from stories,

In all

you searched for me.

Still

there are others

that you put on your walls

many swaying under weight

Of them

some I had played with once.

In this

museum of memories

I have often mixed my pictures

and left them alone to speak

Only that, they

never heard from you.

Letter 2

Dear dream

still everyday

i kiss your eyes

then the corner of your lips

and talk to you of my shades.

I come to you like salt

with lust

and find you in blurred colours.

I come to you like silver

with truth

that pierced my skin as well.

I come to you as milk

innocently trying

to find a heartbeat in your core.

I come to you as moon

naked with my flaws

to be perfect in you.

I come to you as satin

just plain

choking million breaths

Dear dream

I come to you in a white shirt

wrinkled

and several sizes large.

Put me to sleep, now I am only white.

Win

From between
a handful of people
you watched

I watched you
through the tiny lens
and swayed drunk

Drunk in your pride
the yellow lights look green
like jealous green

The green stayed out
for we both wore black
and our insides were full

Our insides have pride
pride and pride
i wish some of it was just you and me

You could smile then
i could find several reasons
for a silly grin

death note

aah jo quatra na nikla tha, so toofan nikla

a sigh that never trickled came out a tornado

-mirza ghalib

This storm that has not passed,

tonight it will bring us close.

While saving ourselves,

we shall touch each other.

The desire that stayed beneath

we shall stay with it tonight.

We shall love it,
kiss it, and hold close.

Tomorrow when it clears

we will remember.
In a death notebook
we shall write each other's name.
The cause-lovestruck
..........................................................................

this new day
i will kill you
slit your stomach
retrieve
every bit of love
that i fed you
i could sprinkle
acid and fire
let it eat your skin
wipe every mole
every fingerprint
see you raw inside
i could split your head
while you sleep
i will tear dreams
make them colourblind
turn them black
i could suffocate
your lungs with
smoke and hate
let obedient maggots
feast on you
a million shards
of that big mirror
will marinate your veins
in every piece.
you will die
with my picture
in your eyes

Forough

Have sinned a rapturous sin,in a warm enflamed embrace,sinned in a pair of vindictive arms,arms violent and ablaze.

Gift

Speak out of the deep of night
out of the deep of darkness
and out of the deep of night I speak.

If you come to my house, friend
bring me a lamp and a window I can look through
at the crowd in the happy alley.


Translated by Ahmad Karimi Hakkkak

Window

When my faith was hanging
by the weak thread of justice
and in the whole city
the hearts of my lamps were
being torn to pieces,
when the childlike eyes of my love
were being blindfolded by law's black kerchief,
and fountains of blood were gushing forth
from the distressed temples of my desire,
when my life was no longer anything,
nothing but the tick tock of a wall clock,
I discovered that I must,
that I absolutely had to
love madly.

one window is enough for me,
one window to the moment of consciousness
and looking and silence.
the walnut sapling
Is now tall enough to explain
the meaning of the wall
to its young leaves.
ask the mirror
the name of your savior.
Is not the earth that trembles under your feet
lonelier than you?

......

i watch

through the glass

two wrinkled dolls

white and pink

lips open and close

memorizing lullabies

little girl and mother

a patient struggle

timeline and tricks

chocolate stains

spilled tea

tastes of future

a lone traveler

a metallic journal

windblown thoughts

eastern puzzles

promises of return

to another life

yesterday

a father and son

a hushed reunion song

ham sandwiches and

Darjeeling tea

a strained longing

for the unused time

everyday

someone new

in pairs

unaware of me

my hand prints on glass

waiting for us

again

the same corner

hungry afternoon

a pot of tea

for two

Link

The only link

between you and me now

are these lines that try to remember

all the first times and the last looks.

They stray into empty canteens

graveyards and fun fairs

rooftops and radio channels.

Through flickering video reels

of never ending quarrels with

unattended wishes and gifts

you stare at the screen

in your cheap sunglass moment.

My impressions change shape

on paper, like poems and brides

like careless ink stain doodles

and a story that you read at night.

Memory-

the only link

between you and me now

is everything.