Like the clouds you drifted
away to distant land
In pursuit of your dreams.
You endeavoured to gain
A life of affluence,
Leaving hearts parched behind.

The glitter of strange land,
New places and faces
Captivate , mesmerize,
Lifestyles entice , provides,
Ostentation presides.
Success is misconstrued.

Engrossed deep in your strive
To ameliorate life
Success prioritized,
Bonding gets compromised .
Your visits become few
swapped by excuses new.

Feelings wane away as,
You endlessly explore
While far back at home,
Vacant eyes search for the
Happiness and warmth,
that money can’t purchase.

Your loving grandma
turns stoic, keeps counting days,
Ears hung to phone bell ,
eagerly for your news awaits.
Living for all these years
Vicariously through you.

The doors await your steps,
festivities miss you.
While  the loved ones remain
impatient   for you                                                                                                                                       to  restore  their lost smiles.
And make this house a home once more.

..

Why do you ignore
An empty hand that implores?
For a few crumbs of bread
Or some pennies instead.

A strong resentment in you I feel,
Reflecting repulsion in the glance you steal
Ready with hollow advices to preach ,
Declaring begging a perpetrating disease.

No comforts you offer nor a penny you spare.
Comparing mendicants to criminals is not fair.
For if you are deprived of endearment
Don’t blindly give your judgment.

Addicted to wasting meals ,
How would you know our ordeal
For pangs of hunger buffeting thus,
Seems a relentless curse on us.

Forced to live on others mercy, dying each day of ignominy.
This plight of us brought about by your tyranny.
Your malpractices and selfish schemes, havoc wreaks.
Unfathomable greed makes humanity weep.

Stumbling over the stairs
File slipping from my hand
My shawl sweeping the office floor
As I stooped to collect the scattered papers
placing them in the file haphazardly
amidst an air of melancholy.
The bold letters of my mom’s name
on the file cover
smiled, exuding a certain warmth, enough to break the barrier
for tears waiting to gush out .
and for a moment oblivious to the surrounding

I let it flow
As they trickled on the file cover,
paying their homage .

A strong desire rose within me ,

if only ,I was endowed
with the power to bargain with God,
The legacy and all that I own,
Or would own in my life time,
I would relinquish to get you back next to me,
to hold your warm hands once more,
instead of this cold file,
that bestows me your legacy
What good is this marble and granite,
bereft of your angelic smile,

That made my world shine.

I don’t know what my heart wants,

Vast expanse of greenery or cozy company,

The freedom of the sky,

Or the confinement of a heart.

I really don’t understand

This crazy heart of mine.

Longings take a sinuous turn

Sometimes leaping towards the sky

Sometimes steeping towards the sea.

Eager to abandon all to reach unattainable heights ,

or sink in the enigmatic depths

Of why, why not , when and who ?

The past seems a long dream

All attachments, mere myths.

And the future a mirage,

A fooling charade.

And it is the present that baffles ,

Unable to decide, why this restlessness in me ?

I wish, suddenly a beam of light,

Would shine from somewhere, somehow

And enlighten me of the desire of the heart.

Or is it that the heart has stopped desiring.

So the world looks so insipid, so strange !

Under the silver twilight love walks away
The silhouette growing smaller
Disappearing in the oblivion.
Leaving behind a storm of darkness.
Giving a feel of a hundred arrows
piercing at once
That’s when the heart looks inside the void
And wonders what had created the chaos
What churned the life for a lifetime
Pursuing bliss ephemeral,
Is love for real or just an illusion
Or mere delusion
Or fancy of a youthful heart
Or a myth of folklores.
For if love was real
Then why it proves a travesty
Doesn’t love make you smile,
When you first feel the vibe,
Exuding an aura of bliss and joy
Then why does it fade away ?
if altruistic emotions are its creations
why does it wax and wane
and hides behind shades
turning into a stranger ,
to the one whose space it occupied .
the weight of which felt ,
only once gone ,
Carving deep impressions,
leaving a heart undulated for life.

The Drink called Life.

Drink the drink of life
For nothing more refreshing than the breath of life.
So all parched lips get together ,
drink the intoxication freely available,
To witness flowers bloom in deserts
And stars glitter in eyes.

Let it touch thy lips without regret
Bringing thee triumph over death.
And when you shall finally cease to drink
Death shall wrap you in its wing.
So drink and rejoice,
at the intricacies of life.

                  LET THE MUSIC PLAY.

Chinars swaying in their majestic way,

Pause  to  look at the moss covered footprints  

On  the paths now  un trodden ,pondering

why  the palmate  leaves  no longer  flutter  

with the chirpy ,  multilingual breeze   

wafting  through  them .

Their  barks yearn for

the tender touches  of newly wed couples

posing for clicks memorable.

While the Zabarwan  gazes achingly    

at   the deserted stretch of tulips

resembling  the trousseau abandoned by a bride.

And the   mellifluous ‘ bhumbro’

trapped in lumped  throats

Struggles  to float from rooftops and rise  to a crescendo.

Encouraging the  lonely shikaras, snuffling   in the shadow   

to be rowed in the crystal clear water of Dal lake

With fun and  frolic riding its chest

While agile fingers glide through chilled waters

causing ripples and  soothing nerves.

Along with  the aroma of Kahwa that fills  the crisp misty air.

Which   the hidden kangris under the pashminas

promise to warm .

Vestige of once festooned house boats,

Join in the show, beckoning towards  its warm abode.   

Rosy cheeks with promising smiles,

Enveloped in embellished Pherans  and Kasaba

on flower laden shikaraas ,

Wait to cross your paths offering their exotic blooms  ,

midway of the lake.

The pristine terrain pledges a paradise

Not to be lost behind the gossamer sheets of photo  frames

The cascading , singing streams promise

to drench listless soul  with  the fragrance of saffron,

ripe apples, while, dangle to please every  taste buds.

And all this time the high , smoking  mountains

Envisions  and smile with certainty ,

its  confidence hard  to crumble.

Cradling embryonic love stories,

with ambiguous fate

In the shadow of twilight,

Wait for the music to be played.

STAY WITH ME.

Stay with me tonight.

For the stars are dazzling  bright

And the moon is in its loony height,

Stay with me,

for there is a blinding light.

My heart beats in a way strange

Throbbing hard to break loose.

For it is not the dark I fear

But it is the light  that shears.

hiding the dark within its folds.

As not  acclimatized  to un reined  joy  

I fear I may stumble  and drown

in the music of the night,

that  tugs at the  ascetic core.

Arousing a tempest  under my skin

Wavering my thoughts to overflow all limits.

With the cool wind playing through my locks,

wafting  musk tickling sensuous  senses,

the  heart, accustomed to fraught silence,

and mind, tamed to   respect  boundaries,

threaten to betray, to taste this life,

to get swept in the ephemeral ecstasy,

burying the conscience under piles of allures.

It is then that  exhilarated senses tend to slide,

sinking  in the delusion and grandiose  all around,

giving the devil reasons to smile,

tempted to taste the forbidden.

O faith don’t leave my side,

Tonight and every night.

The sun slithers behind the horizon
Dimming the light the night arrives .
In this darkness she raises her head
Robed luridly, her hood she spreads

Brandishing seductive glances ,
Swashes spreading her trance .
Veiling her rancor, forges smile.
Predicaments, so what , turn her vile .

Driven by perpetuating plight
Trades her days with the night.
Willingly places her self on pyre
To become the vestige of carnal desire

Of saints in respected raiment
Profoundly proud of their payments.
Their life, veritably , bereft of flavour
Feign to bestow upon her a favour.

Shrieks her soul, in colossal pain ,
Consensually ravaged for meager gain.
Yet she solely pays the price.
For her sun sets with every sunrise
Primordial patriarchy leaves him untarnished
By blinded milieu she is vehemently banished.

@ Bilquis Fatima

Under the dome
In the sanctity of your domain
The sacred vicinity
Where people pour their heart out.
Bowing my head,
In veneration for the supreme divine.
Tears silently trickle down, soaking my chest.
You hear my words, my cry, my silence.
Requesting and pleading.

Relieve me of the weight,
My heart no longer can tolerate.
Show me the path out of this labyrinth
Or bestow in me,
Strength to bear it fearlessly
And accept it as a part of me.