Ode to a Sibling
Is there a burial ground for a heartache? A deep distant corner to bury your feelings Of the sort that were suppressed Emotions left unexpressed The ache of a playmate lost The agony of a companion gone The hand that helped me walk The one who shaped the way I write and talk Never to come back again ..you're gone without a trace Every time I've thought of you I've held back Stopped myself from wondering How it would have been had you been around How you'd have felt In my moments of joy and those when I was in pain Years have passed yet the hurt remains The unsaid and the unreleased is what I pen today Don't need photographs on the wall I close my eyes... I see your face
साया
लिखने की चाहत तो बहुत है जाने क्यों कलम साथ नहीं जज़्बात सियाही से लिखे लफ़्ज़ नहीं मेरे बेलगाम बहते अश्क़ बयां कर रहें हैं अभी तो बैठे थे फ़िलहाल ही लगता है पलट गयी दुनिया कैसे ये मालूम नहीं जाने वाले की आहट भी सुनी नहीं सर पे से अचानक साया हठ गया है वो जो ज़ुबान पे आ के लौट गयी वो बातें बाक़ी है अब कहने का मौक़ा कभी मिलेगा नहीं हाय वक़्त रहते क्यों कहा नहीं कुछ दिन से ये सोच सताती है अल्फ़ाज़ बुनता हूँ मगर उधड़ जाते हैं ख़यालों जितना उन में वज़न नहीं डर भी है ये विरासत कहीं खोए नहीं मगर यक़ीन-ए-पासबाँ भी मज़बूत है लिखने की चाहत तो बहुत है जाने क्यों कलम साथ नहीं जज़्बात सियाही से लिखे लफ़्ज़ नहीं मेरे बेलगाम बहते अश्क़ बयां कर रहें हैं
Since You’ve Been Gone
Since you’ve been gone Been trying each day To find the strength Pick up the pieces And somehow move on Days run into days Years into years Time has tried to be a friend But the heartache won’t mend There’s no easy way I look around I see the world I’ve built The life I live There’s an emptiness Despite the happiness I found Maybe it’s not going to change The way I feel Guess it’s meant to be The emptiness is you driving me It’s destiny even if it’s strange Since you’ve been gone Keep trying each day To make you my strength Make meaning of these pieces Put on a smile and brave on
The Value of One
Someone very dear became a statistic For the world a number got added to a count What the number had added to our lives Could never possibly be expressed and quantified The value of one is just so misrepresented Never fully understood till a life has ended What has perhaps been unleashed upon humanity Is an irrefutable, irreparable, surely irreverent curse One where a loved one who’s sick cannot be tended to Left with a gut wrenching feeling of sheer helplessness No conversations, no get well soon s, no visiting hours No pallbearers, no reassuring hugs, no shoulder to cry on The wise shall always say that this too shall pass Nothing good nor for that matter anything bad ever lasts Wisdom of the world sadly doesn’t help fill the void There’s a vacuum sans emotions, no release, no closure A father, a husband, a brother, a friend to some is gone forever Those who are left behind living, live on knowing the infinite value of one
Remember
Remember the time when we were WE Remember when would be together and could just BE Times when doing nothing together meant EVERYTHING Times when arguing was just a way of TALKING Remember saying what we meant and meaning what we SAID Remember never wishing for a lifetime but always FOREVER Times when making out meant way more than LOVEMAKING Times when we gave it all but nothing was really worth TAKING Remember when we could hear every thought without SAYING Remember feeling the pain without anyone HURTING Times of living in the moment and every moment worth a MEMORY Times of breathing easy around each other and making it easy to BREATHE Wonder why life feels like all of it was a LIFETIME AGO Wonder what came over us where did all the time GO Time perhaps to count our blessings and making the blessing COUNT Time to stop changing what we had and remembering to make that CHANGE
Past Continuous
It’s September again The great healer has ground on It’s passage though hasn’t erased pain Life meanwhile has been persistent and gone on But thoughts and questions they never cease The why and what if keep meshing new tales Indulging the heart, dancing the tease Memories coming to life in great detail Some things perhaps are just too good to be Breezy lives that leave happiness for your lifetime to last Angels passing by, meant for another world maybe Our present and future unfolding from their continuing past
साया
लिखने की चाहत तो बहुत है जाने क्यों कलम साथ नहीं जज़्बात सियाही से लिखे लफ़्ज़ नहीं मेरे बेलगाम बहते अश्क़ बयां कर रहें हैं अभी तो बैठे थे फ़िलहाल ही लगता है पलट गयी दुनिया कैसे ये मालूम नहीं जाने वाले की आहट भी सुनी नहीं सर पे से अचानक साया हठ गया है वो जो ज़ुबान पे आ के लौट गयी वो बातें बाक़ी है अब कहने का मौक़ा कभी मिलेगा नहीं हाय वक़्त रहते क्यों कहा नहीं कुछ दिन से ये सोच सताती है अल्फ़ाज़ बुनता हूँ मगर उधड़ जाते हैं ख़यालों जितना उन में वज़न नहीं डर भी है ये विरासत कहीं खोए नहीं मगर यक़ीन-ए-पासबाँ भी मज़बूत है लिखने की चाहत तो बहुत है जाने क्यों कलम साथ नहीं जज़्बात सियाही से लिखे लफ़्ज़ नहीं मेरे बेलगाम बहते अश्क़ बयां कर रहें हैं