Poetry

Purely Academic 

Let’s now become purely academic 

Our goals lined by books, 

You should cite Virginia Woolf 

And I, just William Blake, 

You would say something about theories 

Like how fancy differed from imagination, 

And how imagination kept Coleridge 

Apart in two distinct parts, 

I would try not to be traditional 

So would I quote from Eliot, 

You would challenge me 

With an wasted land 

Before I would take you

To the mariners, 

From there we would both change places 

You would take the right hand side of the window 

And I would sit on the left, 

And both of us would occasionally look at 

The outside world 

Out of our bookish pursuits

The Girl with Never-Ending Secrets 

'My first husband got a son 

I never met him 

Saw him on photos 

And thought he was dream' 

That's how she narrated her life 

So horrid and filled with pathos 

She had been several times wived 

And still she found her course, 

I thought I was just like Manto 

Giving in to her dismal state 

But how could I not feel her woe 

Which she had it by her fate;

Then came a day deep and long 

I saw how earth smiled like a child 

I thought then I wrote a song, 

An ode to the summer mild, 

I gave that to her, out of grief 

Knowing that she could it bear 

Like a yellow disillusioned leaf, 

But she not for that had care, 

She tore it and flung across 

The day as it went away 

I knew she would take a pause 

Before she would next time pray.

That Fruit Juice Seller at Kufri 

A meandering road lied upfront 

Like a virgin spreading her charms, 

The warmth of the day brought smell of 

Cherries, apples and a lot of candy floss; 

Hiking a few kilometres when thought to rest 

The vendor selling juice appeared 

I must have been thirsty For took only few minutes 

To empty the steel tumbler, 

' want another?' 

The vendor asked, business like his tone, 

' yes, one more please' 

I had been the most agreeable thing, 

Docile, modest, too gentlemanly,

He smiled, 

An all knowing smile, ' 

Kufri leaves no one thirsty' 

He said. 

I agreed not to disagree.