RIP APJ

Never seen you in my life

Was never blessed to have.

Only read your words 

Words which moved minds. 

Yet can’t stop my tears

Can’t bid you goodbye

True father to our nation

These tears remain, unwiped

Come back

Someone broke your heart

Someone will mend it too

Take it all with zest -

For we live, at his behest.

You have friends, true.

A family through all blues.

You may cry for a while

For now, we abide.

The sun will soon shine –

Your tears too will dry

Your lone, trampled mind

Will also unwind.

Do then, come back

To us, with a happy self

You are too precious a gift

To be left bereft.

Earthquake

Fear of the unknown

Looms above me

Dark times are imminent

It warns, silently

I feel its footsteps pound

A discordant march breaking the grounds.

Shake it off, they curtly say

I try my best, but it stays

The earth swiftly shudders from beneath

Torn bodies are strewn ahead rapidly!

I grab what I could call mine

IDs, to my broken mind

Nothing’s left for you here

Nothing’s left of you here

Had I really seen it come by?

Were there any signs I’d denied?

When your world is shaken, you’d believe

There was a lot you could’ve done, in grief

But, who am I to take a call?

We are all petty mortals, after all. 

Void voices

I wish you were on my speed dial

Only a phone call away

I wish I could hear your voice

And hug your tall frame.

I wish I could bother you

With the silliest of complaints

I wish I could turn to you

And be assured I was safe

I wish I remembered you often

Not just when I'm in pain

I wish your memories stayed

And not fade off with each day

I wish you would coarsely tell me

I'm here - things will change!

Daddy, I wish you were somewhere - alive

So I could stop posting poems and fly.

Pick me

If when at my worst, 
I still treat you like my best - 
Pick me, from the rest.

Forgive Me

Forgive me mother
But I wanted to learn
I didn’t know the ways
Of a ruthless world.

You wanted me to stay

To do the dishes today

I promised to be back soon

And that I wouldn't stray.

I kept after little baba

As we walked the muddy roads

He is a tad younger

But a man (we follow the codes).

The school was far off

But that didn’t keep me away

New year was approaching

I had to practice for a play.

The day started with history

My favorite of the lot

An era dead, bygone

Came alive in that slot.

Stories of mighty rulers

And benevolent kings

Transport me to a heaven

And suddenly the bell rings.

I promise, dear mother,

It was not my fault

Someone just barged in

Unaware we were caught.

No face to the intruder

No name I can recall

Not that identity matters

When on sinning you're sold.

A red splash of hot blood

Drenched my crisp uniform

Surprisingly it was not painful

Though my whole body was torn.

I promise mother, I didn’t cry

I kept thinking of your beautiful smile.

I fell face first on to the floor

The face-less was firing all this while.

Tabassum moaned.

Laila was dead.

Shazia's face was

a bleeding mess.

I lay as I fell,

Floating in and out of dreams

The kings have come,

to probably take me.

I'm sorry Mother,

For the undone dishes

For not staying back,

For the unfulfilled wishes.

I've lost my life

Fallen prey to the Taliban

Should I have stayed at home?

Subservient to a man?

Solitude

You are alone
The little voice echoes
I try to ignore
She continues, hoarse

You cannot break free
From burdens that bring you down
You may die trying 
With not a soul to mourn

I shrug off the voice 
She slowly dies away
But I'm lonely inside 
Have her words already slain?

Am I really alone? 
Thought many were here to stay? 
In this life and the ones to come by 
Won't they walk with me all the way?

I hear a bubble break
Castles pulled down far away
They are merciless, unkind 
Voices tell me to hide

I dint choose to be born
But I chose to be strong
Wish I'd chosen a life instead 
Where I dint lead, just bowed down.