पानी

पानी की औकात बस पानी की है;
साहिल हो करीब तोह दरिया कहलाता है
आंखों में हो तोह अश्क कहलाता है।

बहने दो मुझे, बस पानी हूँ मैं
लौट आऊंगा कभी बादल की तरह,
या फिर ग़म की घटा बनके।

मेहमान

चाँद देहलीज़ तक आ कर लौट गया कल रात
मुमकिन है मेरे घर के अंधेरों से डर गया, बेचारा।

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A quivering drop of dew,
I tremble in the cusp of dawn.
Clasping all my love for you
close,
for fear that it may spill over
and drown me.

I cradle your memory in my arms
like some fragile dream
that dissipates at daybreak;
knowing that every short moment lived with you
is slyly stolen from
immutable Time.

The pregnant silence of pre-dawn
ripples under my skin
like cosmic fever.
I wait
for the orgasmic blaze of sunrise
to set me and my love for you free,
and take me into Nothingness.

उम्मीद

कुछ तारों के टुकड़े हाथ में लिए
फिर रहा हूँ कबसे;
मेरी उम्मीद की आखरी निशानी है यह।

नादानियत की भी हद तोह देखो, यारों
टूटते तारों से उम्मीदें बाँधने चला था मैं।

एक मुलाक़ात

कल रात मैं मिला मुझसे;
पहचान होने में कुछ देर हुई।
शायद क्यूंकि टूटा था वोह
शायद क्यूंकि बिखरा था मैं।

या शायद क्यूंकि वजूद के दो अनजान हिस्से
अपने-अपने मुकद्दर की तलाश में मश्रूफ़ थे।

A Dead Spider In Its Web

An untidy tangle of lifeless limbs;
eight gangly legs
entwined in a futile, convulsive,
supplication to Life
and Death.

The dead spider swings gently
in the sluggish summer breeze.
In death,
a prisoner of its own web of
gossamer deceit.

Suspended,
like Trishanku,
between heaven
and earth.
Condemned to an eternal vigil
of Salvation.

Untitled

The muggy, mangled night
mingles with my tears
and percolates
bluck, turgid,
into the wrinkled dusts of my Soul.

Tears and sweat
meet old, parched blood
and fuze,
molecule to unclean molecule.

Thus do I nurture
the pain that my love for you
invites home,
night after muggy night.

Last Night

The time we spent together
shatters
by my sleepless bedside.
Torn from each other,
infinite desolate particles from
yesterday's togetherness
lie on the floor
blinking in disbelief.

I sweep and gather
each infinitesimal moment we have shared
into my hands.

I scan the fragments for your laughter.

But all I see are the shadows of
disjointed echoes.
And the shards of your seductive smiles
glinting in the
ancient, decaying starlight.

At daybreak,
I close my weary eyes
and shed a few tears
into my hands
in the hope that
through some exotic alchemy of pain and sunlight,
our broken time will mend itself.

And you will return to the time we spent together.