That there is room for other conversations too
is a thought, a double-edged sword
for me,
and for you.
My friend on the next bar stool
is mesmerized with your heaving breasts,
your slender frame sitting straight,
laughing, sipping wine, while the world waits
to genuflect before the moment
when the woman in you will glow.
“Yes! Yes! I know what the world has come to!
Hunger, intolerance, head-butts, Zizou!”
Please! Please take note of what I’ve become too
but I don’t know how you do that
I forget my misery; laugh at your jokes.
You caress my cheek, playfully pat.
“No seriously! I mean there are more bombs than childbirths.
Ask a man gone casual walking in Baghdad, Madrid.”
Somewhere the ghazal singer croons Faiz…
“Aur bhi gham hai zamane mein mohabat ke siwa…”
Ah no! I remember “dukh” in the original work.
“Dukh” is stark, naked, intensely painful than
“Gham”; a ghazal singer's mellifluous, melancholic version.
“Ha! Here speaks the poet
whose only tool to a woman’s heart
is semantics!”
Everyone titters, I feel naked.
You giggle, wink, blow a kiss.
“Don’t you think it was chilling to watch Saddam today?
As if he’s walked into a bar asking for a table!”
I feel a shiver up my spine.
Raise my glass, toast the wine.
“Long live America!”
We all laugh.
“I love your sense of humor.”
But I wait for the inevitable.
I wait for the moment
when your own thoughts
conspire, chain your heart.
I wait for the moment
when my poetry's logic
play tricks, seal your lips.
How long,
how long can you duck, efface
before my joy trips on your face?
That there is room for other conversations too
is a thought, a double-edged sword
for me,
and for you.
Ah! She sings my favourite Momin ghazal now…
“Ulte wo-h shikwe karte hain aur kis ada ke saath,
betaaqati ke taanein hain uzr-e-jafa ke saath.
Maanga karenge abse dua hijr-e-yaar ki
Aakhir to dushmani hai asar ko dua ke saath.”
© Dan Husain
December 31, 2006
7 comments:
Eeee, Dan.
Damned nuanced new years celebrations. I thought that my being had converged with every other in the room, for some time.
And now that punctuation to time's flow that seemed to me an exclamation point has arced its back into a comma.
Thankyou for your kind, festive greetings.
More gibberish to follow,
Ben.
i read,
and then search
for vocabulary
worthy enough
to appreciate
what you write
wonder why
there was no word
in the god damn dictionary
which could give comprehensible form to what i think about
what you write:)
Btw, happy new year!!
You had me at heaving breasts
But then again
I'm easy that way
And you used "genuflect"
Sweet
Is it a statement of the times or of human nature that I remember the head but but couldn't tell you without serious thought of who won the cup...
Perhaps it is just me
or being American
Perhaps the latter
Or all the above
None the less, enjoyed once again reading your words
Happy new year!
I hope you had lovely new year eve..its good to see you writing again
Lovely poem!
Very much enjoyed my time spent strolling through your site...as a poet and an avid reader, I found it both enlightening and enriching. I thank you...
Dan, stopped by chance, liked what I read...do you mind if I ask you to translate some urdu/persian to hindi? I almost worship Ghalib but there are times when I think I knew someone who could explain me this word or that word....
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