#50: A Ghazal For The Times

So you thought you would tell a joke in my state?

You should know better than to provoke, in my state.

High-flying ideas of freedom and equality don't fly anymore,

You learn to shut up, or you choke in my state.

We are the blood orange sceptre of a study in mediocrity,

But the impotence of brute strength awoke in my state.

The tv and akhbaar have learnt to toe our sacred lines-

Didn't you get the memo before you spoke in my state?

The valley is beautiful, the capital is thriving-

How dare you seek clarity through the smoke in my state?

Give up, kaffir, you have lost your way and the narrative,

You do not know the power of dagger under cloak in my state.

 

#49: Finally A Sonnet

I am not scared of the days or miles, love,

But the perfume of memory fades still-

Or makes itself commonplace, everyday stuff

'til affection makes way for mere goodwill.

Can months of cold hold out some fervent hope

Of warmer lands that don't burn this desire

On a pyre of good sense, nor walk the tightrope

Of frayed threads, afraid of another fire?

Maybe I let hope bear folly forward

Into days of deluded ignorance;

Misread and misspoke and maybe misheard

All that would be better left to mere chance.

Serendipity, kind friend and sour foe,

You should have left us to ourselves long ago.