Poetry: Nazir Wani

Wani Nazir

1. UNEASY QUANDARY!

The thoroughfare, 
Where I stand perplexed,
To choose a road 
Heading to the city of celebrations, 
Offers five untreadable roads
In front of my eyes;
One, like a dilapidated heart
Panting and palpitating feebly, 
As the chariot of the sky 
Brings down with itself, 
All the miseries and deprivation 
That melt in its smoldering smithy, 
Onto the road, every day;
Another, like a corpse of pain sprawled recklessly, 
As the seemingly stoic moon
Disrobed of her gown of silver 
Walks swaggeringly, 
Bewailing over her lost sheen 
And the splintered dreams 
Of my fellow beings, 
Along the road, every night;
Third, like a quagmire of scalding blood, 
As the adulterated waters of the Dal
After sucking in the crimson blood
From every nook and cranny, 
In a fit of frenzy and tumult 
Bids adieu to its dwelling,
Inundates the road, every summer;
Fourth, like the old branch of the decrepit Chinar 
Niched at the periphery of my yard, 
The veins of whose leaves 
Puffed up with long fermented Emaciation 
By the autumnal whiffs 
And fall down on the road, every autumn;
Fifth, like a leech stuck into my throat 

Feeding on the very breaths 
Exuding from the sacs of my lungs, 
And metamorphoses into a leviathan 
It straggles on the road, day in day out;
May the God of the cave's men
Show mercy to this vexed soul 
And strike means that may 
Catapult me to the city of celebrations
Without having to choose
Any of the road
Marred by miseries and splintered dreams! 
Amen.

2. AUTUMN (Acrostic)

And, along with the veins of leaves, my sinews wizen too, 
Ushering the uncanny undulations of untethered flux, 
Trees bid a customary adieu to the dress of green, and I
to those youthful boulevards;
Under the sluggish sun, I gobble up the last crumbs of warmth
Mixed with salt and pepper of my indolence, 
Nudging my wakefulness to yawning hibernation.

3. REDISCOVERING MY HISTORY

Quite often! 
When a long summer day 
Disarms its effulgence 
To the dark crevices of night, 
When my scalding sobs and soughs
Admix with the tenebrous moonbeams, 
When the sand of unrequited love 
Settling deep down, 
Slows the flow of my blithe emotions, 
When a ghost of pain 
Haunts my hollowness, 
And gulps down 
The last crumbs of joy within, 
When a white dwarf star 
About to be stripped off of its apparels 
Gropes for the space for its annihilation, 
When the leaves of the Chinar 
In my courtyard 

Whisper to one another 
All my secrets and those of my ancestors
In a language undecipherable 
By human ken and phren,
I, along with my tribe whole, 
Sit engrossed 
At the edge of our backyard 
And twirl the long spools of life 
Through my fingers 
Trying to rediscover 
My lost history down Adam.

4. ELEGY!

An assortment of dreams, 
From within my rib-cage rose
Due to the heat
Of my scalding passions, 
And, on my frail eyelashes
Demurely perched;
A hard jolt of your mistrust
Shook them down topsy-turvy;
A few, trampled
Under my own impolite feet;
A few, left to be stamped 
By all and sundry;
A few, whipped away 
By the strong whiffs 
Of your reckless apathy 
And hurled in some darkened sea, unheard!
Ah! My bosom vacant palpitates somberly; 
The corpuscles tear their very being
And toss against the walls
Of my shriveled veins, 

Lamenting the loss of dreams all!
Setu, October 2017

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