13 Insomniac Moons
Night ceases to be a sedative, a journey through wilderness,
weary traveller’s hammock, her trailing footprints or
that lingering winter breath December, 3.01 am
Night has become an unintelligible prescription,
January, 3.02 am.
A busy courtroom, strangulated testimony,
dungeon where I wait for
that chance meeting with the executioner,
a sudden announcement.
February, 3.03 am
No more a blank page of hope, a poet’s frenzy,
exile in womb, a quieter end March, 3.04 am
but one short
sentence of the final judgement
April, 3.05 am
a hurried signature on the prison register
delirious memory of your face and
tufts of prostrate grass after a fanatic wind
No more a madwoman’s refuge, night is, but the
hangman’s dawn May, 3.06 am
June, 3.07 am
Painful than death itself, night is death’s keeper,
its stubborn reminder
a waiting room—bleak walls, no doors,
windows, no patterns to count
to conquer time. A small crevice
but no desire to escape July, 3.08 am
August, 3.09 am
Night, no longer
a geometry of stars but a turbulent sea of celluloid faces—
father’s, mother’s, brother’s, sister’s,
madwoman’s, hangman’s, cobbler’s, shepherd’s,
words, windows, mirrors, colours,
paper boats, yarn, speck,
winter, spring, summer, autumn
—sinking into abyss.
September, 3.10 am
Night was to become the last sigh
in the death chamber before it escaped
and was martyred in some stranger’s eyes
October, 3.10 am
Nov, 3.12 am
Elsewhere women bury all seasons in their bosom,
untangle each other’s hair,
in a warm embrace
sing lullabies and shower almonds for
the last witness.
Uzma Falak, Jammu & Kashmir
(Born and raised in Srinagar, Uzma Falak is pursuing her doctoral studies in anthropology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and she teaches at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her poetry, articles, essays, and reportage have appeared in several publications.)
EMI
Love Letters
and dried flowers
and borrowed poetry books
and kohl smudged handkerchiefs
and tea stained tissues
and long gossips by the riverfront
and political commentaries at the barber’s
and folktales during the sermons
and attention seeking scooter rides
and burgeoning cousin gangs,
generational jokes, pillow fights
walkmans, cassettes, camerarolls,
ludo, eyespy, marbles,
snowman and scarecrows,
kites and paperboats,
apples and walnut,
rice and sugar,
milk and snow,
all kept as a mortgage,
we bought some elusive life
on EMIs,
paycheck to paycheck,
loan to loan.
Rumuz E Bekhudi, Jammu & Kashmir
(Rumuz E Bekhudi is a multilingual poet, lyricist and translator based in Kashmir. She was featured among the top 50 English poets of India curated by On Fire Cultural Movement. Her poems have been featured in various offline and online publications and have been translated in Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali, German and Italian.)
