On the occasion of International Kissing Day, here are some poems by Moumita Alam to remind us of love, warmth and friendship even in the darkest times.
1. Let Us Kiss During the War
Let a thousand empires fall
Let the palaces be burnt in the fire
Let the rulers fly in fear
Let all the prisoners be free again
Let the common man dance in the rain
Let the world fall
Let it rise again
Let all cheer in joy
Let's not waste our dream in vain
Let's all make love
without fear and agony
Let's all walk in the pride march
with hope and victory
Let's usher in this dawn
with the song of unity
Let me kiss you
A kiss for life.
Let our kiss be the witness -
Love is Revolution
Revolution is Love.
This poem is inspired by the viral picture of a couple kissing each other during a mass protest against the government in Sri Lanka.
2. Kissing After A Month
After a month
I kissed you.
My lips curled up in
A cave full of waters of my
mother's womb
I drank them again
I was longing for a new birth
You wanted to roll on the
mustard field with me in your arms
I too wanted to feel your veins
throbbing for me.
The slanting rays of the sun
fell on your breasts
I sucked all lights
It tasted like the Charminar* ashes
of the first male kiss
of my father
We both licked our backs
the prehistoric prejudices had scorched
our spines with wounds.
A Muslim girl kissed a Hindu man
A Hindu man spitted out customs
In my village, a madrasa was bulldozed
somewhere a new mosque was being built
in between we kissed
after a month of turmoil, of peace.
In the bubbles of our mouth caves
two lives swam
and two humans were reborn
one unlearned his texts
and other touched her own sky
We kissed after a month
Our births were long overdue.
*Charminar is the name of a cigarette brand which is no longer available in the market.
3. Thirty-three-and-a-half types of kisses
Google teaches how to
Kiss a woman in twenty-three ways
by occupying her lips
And tongue, throttling her words
Making her numb
It teaches how "He" can kiss "She!"
I turn the table
As I always break rules.
Coming over to my feminist lover as the
world curses him
I kiss him thirty-three-and-a-half ways
As my age is
Now I am She-gle*
I teach you how to kiss!
How "She" can kiss "He"
Without occupation
With equality.
*She-gle – named after Google
(Moumita Alam is a poet from West Bengal. Her poetry collection, The Musings of the Dark was published in 2020. The book has about a hundred poems written in protest against the humanitarian crisis from the abrogation of article 370, the Delhi riots, and the Shaheen Bagh movement to the unbearable sufferings of the migrant labourers due to the unplanned COVID - induced lockdown.)
