Insha Muzafar
Poem I
As If
As if all that existed could ever be
more than my remembrance
and your penchant for lost things
contrary to your scepticism
I believe in these dreams of bread;
the hunger of words
(swirling inside the voids of mirrors)
for the stones of truth
as if the overgrown plane trees
have stopped making nests of time
in the autumn of our bodies
you doubt that the scars shall not outlast
the perpetuity of seasons
hearing the gravedigger singing to lote tree
you hold my hand like a shrine ingress
as if returning from your absurd journey
you shall encounter all the dead
nobody dares to claim the kinship of courtyards;
the figs of today
dismembering into haikus of absence
as if naming a beloved were some form of allegiance
Poem II
I Saw
I saw you walking through
the darkness of mirrors
and the salt turned into Eye
I saw an old woman weeping
while burying the moon in an empty paddy field
and the roads defaced milestones in the fear of being redundant
there was a girl
(so the story goes)
who used to make windows of rain
for the fear of being forgotten
I saw the river disconsolately sighing
in the silence riddled landscape of loss
and called your name to know if it was her___
Poem III
Shadows of clouds rain
on the threshold of your house
and you weep
because the nights are too long
and waiting transcends horizons of dawn
moon splits the bones
into the anguish of prison cries
and the smoke of burnt houses
makes haloes around the sun
travel then
through this wilderness
that others called soul
and map the contours of fading images
on canvas of your knotted memory
Insha Muzafar is a poet based in Kashmir