Syed Ahmed Shah

If you are the social type
And enjoy meeting people,
Never miss a funeral in the graveyard;
Funerals are great occasions
...

When the diseased mind
Talks to the wind
Torn leaves
Turn into swinging shadows.
...

Holes are everywhere...

Holes in the heart
Black holes in space
Manholes in sidewalks
...

Dust on a windy road
Masks on faces
A Child behind the curtain
We try to run away
...

Frozen to my bones
As the mercury dives
But my neurons, born hot,
Never tire of firing
...

Why write about something
That exists by default
Absolute Time
Absolute Space
...

Translation of an ageless song written by Sahir Ludhianvi (Film Pyaasa)

These sickly lanes, these houses of flesh
These pillaged ill-fated caravans of life
...

I aspire to see in a thousand eyes
Raging flames of the blazing sun
To overcome the horrifying ordeal
Waiting at the hazardous crossroads of time
...

My Dress Hangs There

My house was by the sea,
I love the sea.
...

I have felt the floating aroma of those fragrant eyes
Do not accuse it of a relationship with your touch
It is just an emotion; gauge it with your soul
Let love remain love, spare it the burden of a name…
...

Fireball...

The misplaced metaphor
Streaked passed
...

Do not expect of me, my beloved, the same old love
Life once appeared beautiful because, I thought, you were there
The sweet longing for you made me forget other worldly pains
The spring seemed eternal because of your splendid beauty
...

You say it was him
He says it was you
If you do not restrain your fingers
There will be no him
...

Poetry, like love
Comes in volent bursts
It is all about spilling blood
Sometimes hers
...

Flesh of the menial hand is up in the market for sale
Streets dyed crimson with blood from the poor veins
The fire hidden so long, bursts aflame with sudden rage
This heart listens no more to the sober call for restraint…
...

You broke shop windows with sledgehammers
Your arms could hardly lift; and you thought,
Broken crystals would make large sounds and
A solitary fire would look like a thousand and they
...

Oh, for a dropp of rain...

Buckets return empty from the depths of despair,
On our bodies, the desert lays its claim;
...

The Waves in the Human Heart by Hiren Bhattacharyya (Translated from Assamese)

I wish to narrate these feelings very intimately. As intimately as the tears cascading over my cheeks. Alien words from various locations creep all over the darkness of the heart bejewelled with stars; I collect the pen and the paper in the hope of picking up an expression or two; so universal is the human heart, so many waves within. I stood there humbled looking at the rich paddy field.
...

A bird with broken wings
Couldn't take to the sky
Someone's greed robbed it of its
Capacity to fly
...

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