Shepherd
Deep and deep into the woods
I would sink; on and on would
I walk; till I reach the forest hoods!
Shepherd; aah! Be that I could!
Taking...
Farhat, didn’t die
Crowning his Friday
After the disastrous snow
Blood-stained his threshing lines
Life's receding billow
Will leave him for the eternal calm
He is yet to know.
Out from his threads...
El Desperados
How desperate we are to laugh-
To chime with a can of laughter-
Exhaling nervous relief,
Reassured that it wasn't a can of worms.
A concert is over.
See...
Shahid tonight
“Where art thou?” Kashmir needs a Shahid tonight
“O, please free her with poesy,” pleads a Shahid tonight
A red path marks the entrance to my...
The Survivor
I remember:
the initial throe
and the horror
changed into loathing
for them and the system
that is talked of and never seen
and then for my flesh
that remained jerking
with...
An exercise in memory
Dear comrades
let us do an exercise / polish this new guise,
an exercise in memory / memory will set us free
Let us begin, bloodied, let...
Mother’s call
The night's ghosts came prowling down
All geared in a khaki gown
Wielded upon by a ghost with a frown
Biting the dust
History, they say, always repeats itself.
In my homeland, helplessness repeats itself.
Our pangs never settle into grief,
or mourning or bereavement.
A fresh shot of agony injected...
In memory of Agha Shahid Ali: Forever
Do you seek, like Jonah, to be elusive forever--
To live like an ascetic, reclusive forever?
Ode to the rains
A splendid beauty from the skies descends. Embracing the Earth quenches its long thirst. Down hilltops, meadows and rivers it sends. Its stroke and shine in watery outburst.