I remember looking into the mirror, Gazing at giant black-brown eyes With little flecks on them. My button nose came in the way as I leaned in And misted over all details. Without these fragile pieces of glass I wear everyday, I am but a blurred man In the mirror And without; And … Continue reading Hubris Lost
When the poems in your head don’t suffice. When you are left rummaging through The detritus of those which mean nothing Nothing at all to you: The umbilical of the past, the metaphors of the blasted English language The rapidly edited scenes of escape from The black-and-white Western films That mean Fatherhood… The VHS tape scenes that … Continue reading Oh Fitzgerald, how I hate you
A bedside mirror stood forlorn By the building entrance. The hot sun beat down And I was plunging into ice-cold Water, as I walked on. The pages turned themselves, As I flitted from ’38 To ’56: Gestapo to Israeli. There is an Eid, To remember Abraham’s sacrifice But where is the Book for this Age? … Continue reading Displaced, or, On Reading Sacco
If I was a painter, Like the untiring sun… I would recreate: The motes of dust, That fill up a quiet, quiet afternoon bedroom; Revealed, As things of complete abandon Sometimes zipping, Sometimes floating Oblivious, completely oblivious To the pull Of gravity and reason Settling everywhere, From our own skin From the window sill The … Continue reading Jamshedpur, late 80’s
The taste of salt from those soggy potato wafers, Mixing deliciously with the saccharine icing That is the birthday paper plate ritual. That little silver ball discovered By the tongue, suddenly. A tentative bite And it crumbles Into something surprisingly sweet. The taste of salt from that trembling Self-concious corner of the mouth. As tears … Continue reading Wafers and Cake
I lie, A shell within a shell within another. Crash! the outer shells just rent Asunder. I creep, From shadow to shadow Waiting for my moment My rib cage an echo chamber My stomach feeding on its knots. —————————– The war, It comes. The war, Inexorable. Born of our own anxiety to drown it We … Continue reading The bubbles rise all around me
As a child of four, I had just begun Experiencing the joy of long walks, Which taught me to love quiet conversations, As the landscape kept changing And what seemed so far and distant Was suddenly touching distance. Through him, Sometimes I was a dark young man Training to defend my family from the Raj … Continue reading On LN Kabiraj (Dadu)
Every sip, connected to the other one, The liquid connected through memory and taste A haze of tea leaves crushed and yellowed, Sugar, milk, adrak and the magic of giant copper vessels. Dust everywhere. Every scrunch under my feet, Rising and settling And mixing with the flakes of my dead Skin. Skin everywhere. Every spit … Continue reading This City
Lifebood, All entwined. Pinpricks of tears, Hit out From a shared subconcious, How I hate this ageing, How I hate this dying, How I hate this finiteness of everything, Every place, Every world, Every emotion, every tear. Why are we so fragile, When we think we are Gods. Continue reading Pillow + Scream
Black coffee and Glenlivet, Fine cotton and leather, Warm blankets, new tablet, Soft skin, new hearth, Old bombs, old refugee tents, New dictators, old ways, Old terrors, new tech, Old borders, new guns, Cold hearts, warm blood, Cold streets, warm hearts. All at the same time. Continue reading All at the same time
