When Do We Kiss Each Other?

We two are such strange creatures

We carry the distance between us

Like our first-born child

Like our eldest son

With our frustratingly overreaching resolve

We overpower

The overpowering corners of seductive moments

And let the distance grow with all good manners

Moments of hot and cold coffee sips

Moments of enticing dinner bites

Moments of secluded elevator rides

Moments of no-one-is-seeing-us-right-now

All such alluring moments pass uncorrupted

When we reach our respective homes

You stand in front of the mirror

Taking your make-up off

I stand in front of the wardrobe

Sorting my night clothes

We mysteriously break into a smile

Together at the same time

Like two synchronized atomic clocks

That’s when distance goes to sleep

That’s when we kiss each other

That’s when we love each other sleeplessly

Throughout the whole night

Nausea

I love you so much

It makes me dizzy

I struggle with series of nauseous spells

The heavy heart

The restless nerves

The unshapely nights

We are conjoined in this sickness

In the middle of the night

I strum the guitar with annoying tunes

Songs don’t comfort me anymore

It’s the chaos that wraps me

Like an abandoned mother

Whole night

Your breaths reach my ear

I feel like a blind shipwrecked sailor

Hearing waves

Rise and fall

You are the ocean that drowns me

Every night

You rescue me every morning

With a single kiss

I’m tied to your lips now

Like an unspeakable word

Like an illicit affair

Universal Advice

You remember love

The advice of all these people

Our parents in their anxious tone

That humble chowkidar at the mall

That fake accented receptionist at the hotel lobby

That sleep-deprived cab driver

Was exactly the same

“It’s very late, Ma’am”

“It’s very late, Sir”

You remember

How childishly

We replied the same to all of them

“We are just leaving in 5 min”

Strangely time comes to an unexpected halt

When we are together

Those wonder hours

Never pass like time on a clock

I don’t think

Our love can be mapped

On the face of any clock in the world

With restless hands to mark

Seconds, minutes and hours...

I believe

Our meetings are outside any time zone

I Can’t Be A Single Parent

My poems are my teenage daughters

Refusing to wear anything

But your smile

All day and night

You are their only fashion icon

They follow you like mad paparazzi

Yearning to know the most intimate secrets

You hide behind your beautiful face

And your mundane routines of day and night

You’re the only diva

They imitate blindly

Like religious fanatics

They all are foolishly stubborn like you

I can’t be a single parent to them all

Will you join me?

We’ll bring them up all together

Under the kind shade of your bewitching smile

Declaration

Unhurriedly I traced my lips

From her brow to her eyes

And the night was already over

It’ll take me decades to reach her lips

But in love

Distance is the only companion

Between lovers

Everyone else is a conspirator

Against the meeting of two pair of lips

I don’t care

How crazy it may sound!

I don’t care

What world will think of us!

All I know is that

I’m in love with a girl

Who tames unicorns in her backyard

And leaves little love notes on the trees

For lonely birds to read

Why do I need anyone else?

Our First Fight

Before she left

We could settle everything amicably

We divided our memories almost equally

We decided if we can call each other or not

We could separate feelings from reason

Logic from fate

Books from shelves

Gifts from boxes

Flowers from novels

It happened so peacefully

As if

It was meant to be like this

Except when

We had to decide

Who has the claim over our last kiss?

That was the beginning

Of our first fight

We Left A Rose Behind!

Love isn’t planned

Like an academic dissertation on –

“The Nature of Love

And its Trajectories”

Love is chaotic like an unexpected rain

Yet ordered like the tailor’s stitch

Love!

After leaving that unconsummated room

We left that single rose behind

Alone in the room

Love is thinking about that rose

More than anything else...

Goodnight Message

Love!

This whole world is our bedroom

And people are small windows

Shut them all

Before you come to me

Birthday Poem

Like a dying larvae

Life transforms itself

Into butterflies of memories

Time feeds on my memories

Like the many-headed-monster

A day before my birthday

I sit at my desk

Looking blankly

At the empty screen of my life

Wondering

What should I write on it?

Like my beloved

Poetry does not come at my will

I read my older poems then

And realize

She met me more often in my poems

Than in reality

Isn’t that sad?

Is my reality a poor version of my poems?

You are the footnote to all my poems

They are like our ancient bedroom

Where the flowers of lily are still young

And night is still long

Poetry is not like sex though

It is more like foreplay

Sex is passively unidirectional

Many don’t get it at all

Others only masturbate

But those who get it

Never care about orgasm

I know

For you and I

Everything is in foreplay

Foreplay is everything

Shhh...Switch off the lights!

It’s a black out everywhere...

Thumb Circles

When you hold my hand

Our thumbs

Create perfect circular rings

When they madly

Circumambulate each other

Thus defining the precise measurement

Of our only universe

We live in

Gunah-e-Kabeera

Tum Sotey Hue

Uss Bacche Ki Tarah

Lagti Ho

Jisse Khwaab Se Jagana

Gunah Hai...

Redemption

I’m emptied from inside

Like an old forest tree

Eaten away ring by ring

From deep within

Except the bark

And when the slightest breeze waves its arms

I fall flat on the ground

Like a drunken man falling to oblivion

I’m taken away by you

Like an unclaimed property

Like a trophy of your another triumph

We sang together

We read together

We ate together

We smoked together

But when I reached home alone

I realized

You sang a part of me away

You read what you shouldn’t have

You ate my dreams like your favourite dish

You smoked me into a cloud

I am all rain

I’m a desire hanging in your wardrobe now

There is no redemption in love

No resurrection after first sight

No rebirth after first touch

I’m dead timbre now

Chipped, shaved and polished perfectly for use

Use me for your window at least

So when you stand near me

I’ll see what you see

I’ll feel what you feel

When you’ll be waving

Your loved ones away

And you’ll watch them leave

I’ll be witness to your teary eyes

And console you with coming spring

That’s is my only hope

That’ll be my only absolution

Foolish Thoughts

There are innumerable kisses

Hidden inside your lips

I keep frightening myself

By this foolish thought

What if they all are for me?

Over A Cup Of Coffee

When I am with you

I don’t notice

The bitterness of the coffee

Served to us diligently

At these ungodly over-expensive coffee shops

Decorated beautifully with designer-made uncomfortable chairs

How sweet is that!

Death Penalty

Justice is too fragile now

It’s like a weathercock

Over the roof of an abandoned church

A rusty bell wailing

In a deserted temple

A clock alarming five times

In a desolate mosque

No one can avoid death penalty

Life is the only case we can make for it