Kiss Me My Love

Kiss me my love

Again and again

And never stop

Till angels are confused

And they lose the count

Hug me so tightly

Till all the air between us

Stand breathless, envious

Of our closeness

Hold me like you hold yourself

On the swing of your dreams

I will hold you like wind holds gently

The falling leaf

From top of the autumn tree

To the cradle of the ground

Stroke me with you nimble finger-toes

And tame the fire within me

I will caress you with my eyes

Like the brush work of the painter

Love me till I draw a rainbow on your lips

Love me till you leave a flower on my chest

I Stand Like Narcissus

I stand like Narcissus

At the edge of your eyes

I look into your eyes

And fall in love with myself

But when you see me

You choke me out of your eyes

Like a nightmare

A tear falls from your eye

A dream is lost

At the edge of your eyes

I am lost

I stand like Narcissus

But without a face to love

Or a reflection to be obsessed with now

Harvest of Our Love

I sleep under the streetlamp

Of your memories

In the dark nights of my life

I look for the moon of your face

Search the brightest constellation

For your wrist

Steal the fine wool of passing wind

To weave a shawl for you

On the loom of my heartbeat

I catch fireflies with my lips

Kiss them on your forehead

Undo the stars from heaven

Sow them in your palms

And then in the May of our love

I harvest the crops of our dreams

And then when I come back tired

I sleep under the streetlamp

Of you memories

In the dark nights of my life

Wrap myself with warm blanket

Of your letters

And praise God

For the harvest of this season

I Don't Sleep On My Bed

Before leaving my love

You left a swamp

Of tears in my bed

I don't sleep on my bed now

Come and see yourself

Every night

I sleep outside like a beggar

On the cold pavement 

Of our memories

You Are Not What I Am

I’m a coin tossed into the beggar's bowl

A season almost an autumn

You are a castle built by kings

A river almost an ocean

I’m a rainbow morphed out of thunder and light

A reflection almost a mirror

You are a temple carved out of faith and solitude

A season almost an eternity

I am but a rhyme, a rhythm

You are but a reckoning, a reason

You are not what I am

I can never be what you are.

Prison Break

No one is watching

Not even you

But tell me love

How can I break from your snarled prison?

No one who can bail me out

No one I can bribe

No inmates I can plan secretly my escape

Not even any locked bars

Oh! Then tell me love

How can I break from your snarled prison?

I Haven’t Written All About You

Sorry, I am not finished yet

I haven’t written all about you

You are the poem that consumes

All my poems

The journey of my words ends in you

The caravan of my passion stops with you

You consume me like a poem

All my love,

All my words,

All my rhymes and rhythms

They find you and they are lost

But love,

Sorry, I am not finished yet

I haven’t written all about you

I AM A WOMAN.

I am a woman

I am the refugee of your world

You will not find me on any list

Don’t try to find me

I belong to no country

I have no home

I will never be found on your maps

I am an unnamed city

Undiscovered town you seldom reach

Unless you are lost

On your arrogant journey to success

You only walk through me

Like you walk through a dark forest

In the moonless night

You never call me by my name

You who claim to love me

Call me 

Mother

Sister

Beloved

Mistress

But you never call me by my name

I am an unheeded garden

A cactus uncared on the way of you caravan

I am a woman

And nobody knows my name

I am the refugee of your world

I don’t have any address

Don’t try to find me

I live on the outskirts of the town

You deserted long ago

My name is still written on those walls

You never read it

Don't pretend to read it

You are blind to my name

I am a woman without a name

I lost my name

My body

My respect

Only to preserve

Your name

Your body

Your respect

I am a woman you will never know

I am a dried up river

That refused to merge with sea of your world

Leaving behind innumerable smooth rocks

Sitting on which you brood about

How to run your godless world

I am the forgotten figment of your demented memory

And if you ever try to pretend to know me

Remember

I’ll only smile back

Remember that smile

If you will!

To My Editor: God

I am the unpublished author of my life

You are my obnoxious editor

You change everything I write

When I write

A poem of my desires

You change it to an elegy of my wants

A prose of joy

You modify it to a critique of naivety

A fiction of my dreams

You alter it to random lies

A sonnet on my existence

You impose the question of arrogance

The anecdotes of my love

You dismiss them as insignificant flirtations

And when in the state of frustration

I write differently

In a different language

To rebel

To resist

You translate every word of mine

To mere nothingness

You promised me to publish my book

I never stopped writing

But now I know

Even though you will deliver your much hyped promise

I will always be an unpublished author

Of the book I wrote

And published author of the book

I didn’t write

I Am Your Postman

I am your postman

I carry all the letters you wrote to me

But I can’t find myself

Or the home you addressed them to

I will always be your postman

Even if pain is the only letter

You can write to me now

I will carry them all the way

Till I find my lonely home

I will drop them in my deserted postbox

And open them thousand times

With childlike smile on my face

I will read each letter and each line

Over and over again

And rhyme all your words

With patience and love

And if you want me

To write back to you

I will write, write me more love

I will bring you myself

All the blank pages of my future

You can write more pain on them

If pain is the only letter

You can write to me now

I am your postman

I will carry your letters all the way

Till I find my lonely home

Patience of Love

Patience

Is not always the best

You know of my love

I have waited for you

So long

Like the reflection

On the other side of the mirror

Who will break the mirror of this never-ending distance?

The World Without A Map

You have oceans in your eyes

Sun, moon and all the stars

Are just vague metaphors

Of your face

You hide summer in your arms

Winter in your tears

Autumn in your skin

And spring in your smile

You can build a city on your hips

Buildings, homes, roads

And undiscovered markets

Can never map the vastness of your curves

I get lost in your world

But then I know I won’t

I have a home

Deep in the valley of mountains

My temple of mysterious pounding grounds

Every morning I pray there

And sometimes I climb those holy mountains

Sit quietly on the top

Facing the soft winds

From friendly north

And believe 

God is nearby watching over me

Meri Gudiya Mere Khwaab (Kashmiri bachon ke naam)

Pyaari Wafa se maine aek din 

Ye poocha anjaney mai

"Sapne jo aatey hain tumko

Sapney mai kaun aata hai?"

Chotey chotey honton ko

Sharm ki hansi se bigoi thi

"Mai batao mere kwaab mai har din

Meri gudiya aati hai

Uskey aek baazo nahi hai

Kapde phaty phatai se hain

Chehrey pe gard padi hai

Pao pe kafi chaaley hai"

"Mai usko galey lagaon

Kitni baar ye karti hun

Kwaab mai usko apne kareeb

Aur kareeb mai laati hun

Par wo mujhse bolti nahi
Kyon wo mujhse bolti nahi hai?

Kitni batain mai karti hun"

"Jabse humara ghar jala hai

Uski judai mai mai jalti hun

Meri gudiya kwaab mai aakhir

Kabhi to mujhse boley gi

Yahi umeed lakey mai

Din raat ko sooti rehti hun"

"Pyaare Abba tum pyaarey ho

Mera itna kaam karo

Meri gudiya janey kahan hai

Kahin se usko dhoondh ke lao

Dikhney mai wo pyaari hai

Par uskey aek baazo nahi hai

Kapde phaty phatai se hain

Chehrey pe gard padi hai

Pao pe kafi chaaley hai"

"Jahan kahi se dhoondh ke usko

Naye ghar ka pata de do

Wo meri tarah ziddi haina

Pyaar se usko ghar bulana

Gar wo aana na chahe to

Usko mere khwaab sunana

Bus usko mere kwaab sunana"

In Conversation With My Past

“Do you remember that day…?”

Is the way he comes back to me always

I try hard to keep him away

“Why are so obstinate?

We fight for hours

Over the memories I remember differently

Or at least want to remember differently

But then again

He comes back again with his maddening

“Do you remember that day?”

Then out of frustration

I finally turn to him and say

“Yes I remember everything”

“I was there every time”

“But I am not that person anymore"

"I am the person

Killed in the past

Living in the future

Breathing in present.”

“You dare not believe you have me all”

Unsaid Words!

Its better that some things are left unsaid

I

Am…

You

Are…

And

We…