Inside a little girl’s heart

Were bigger beasts of Lethe ¹

Untouched 

and unreached.

For each composed – ‘born as an angel’

Resonated as ‘the devil in disguise’

To his silences,

to her whispers.

Time took her lessons

As age gifted her the presents

Word, reword, 

lost words.

As a maiden mother of Life

this Irony wore the best of cloak

From Nietzsche, 

toward him.

Like walking with a void

With self, in loss,

to Kashmir ²

Are we strangers ‘Kashmir’?

A bond beyond speech and silence

Forgotten,

forsaken

Is that the scar of longing?

(…Ye Dagh-e-Arzu Hai?)³

To that single drop of faith

In all the extended tragedies

She commits a sin

now and then

A little less mind, 

a little more thinking

Incomplete yet abstract

We, the complete poetry.

1.Lethe in Greek mythology a river in Hades; the souls of the dead had to drink from it, which made them forget all they had done and suffered when they were alive.

2.Kashmir is the home of Agha Shahid Ali.

3.A line from Allama Iqbal's Chand.