Facade of Love

Facade of an eternal love
The veil finally lifted
An over dragged play
A very predictable climax
Still a round of applause
For the players who persisted
Had something up your sleeve
You knew the game well
Waited for the moment
Ultimately…cheated
Lines, colours and imagination
The composition is revolting
I’ll keep wondering why
The picture was painted

27th February, 2006. Published in US Magazine, The News

Daughter of the East

The sun has set in the East
Pain and sadness house the heart
I goad the ashes for a hope
Mourns a nation torn apart
The bog rejoices its success
Though her specter shall prevail
Sounding the reveille
Till democracy takes its revenge

These verses were penned down last year. I guess it is necessary to give an idea about the time frame because the lines have somewhat lost their shine.

11:30 pm. 27th December, 2007, standing outside the PPP regional office, looking at the lambent tongues of flame, a hope burgeoned in me that this might lead to a chain effect(don’t read revolution); ousting of the junta and installation of democratic leadership. Hope was fulfilled but certainly not the way I wanted.

Did we learn anything? If the people of Pakistan get a free and fair chance to elect new guards for future security in the next elections then we just might had.

A Gamble

All the aces of my life
willingly proffered to her
She had nothing to lose
I, everything to gain
cognizant of previous wounds
Inner-self demurred temerity
Effacing every doubt
letting her complete me
Took her time, had her fill
But left without a goodbye

12th December, 2008. Published in US Magazine, The News

Giving Up

A cancerous growth
impinging upon soul
Gnawing and piercing
fraying the essence
a halfhearted fight
a web of vicious tentacles
Engulfing and pulling
towards the eternal abode

31st October, 2008. Published in US Magazine, The News

The Quake

I wrote these lines a year after the horrible earthquake hit Pakistan. It was 8th October, 2005 at 08:50:38. Around 80,00 people lost their lives. It was hell on earth. There would never be words which could ever encompass the calamity we witnessed.

Symbolizing the end of times
it came hitting with full force
heralded by the moving chimes
turned worse and coarse
eyes wandering and searching
cities razed to the ground
hands groping and clutching
death toll began to mount
people getting buried alive
nature showed its wrath
leaving it hopeless to survive,
the catastrophic aftermath
less than a year has passed

engrossed in life, shock forgotten
at times it makes me fear

are our souls that rotten?

Dissolving Standards

Dissolving standards,

Crumbling faiths
Doubting everything
In this land
Where hypocrisy and lies
Go hand in hand.
Impaled are the just
Scourged, racked and bound
Hailed are the worst
Revered, honored and sound
Marshal my thoughts
Come to the conclusion
God doth have a sense of humor

8th December, 2006. Published in US Magazine, The News.

Twilight

Multifarious colours of twilight,

Awakening myriads of emotions

The sun sets in

The eyes well up

Dark blanket of night

Blinding all hopes of future

Suffocating the desire for love.

My wounds need a suture

Want to feel a healer's hand

Take my sufferings away,

Resuscitate reasons to live,

Once again feel that mighty sway.

19th January 2007. Published in US magazine, The News.

Age of Reality

Your faith in the age of innocence,

In the permanence of justice,

All is but a dream,

An erroneous belief.

Let me take you,

On a journey of appraisal,

Far away from your ivory tower,

To the world of blood and guile,

Ungodly as a child's shriek,

Where death isn't the greatest tragedy,

Where wisdom becomes insanity,

And knowledge turns to sorrow.

Welcome,

Welcome to the age of reality.

27th April 2007. Published in US magazine, The News.

Rise & Shine

The eyelids refuse to open,

Wishing to remain in peaceful limbo,

Heralded of the surrounding misery,

Ugly sights and painted faces.

Battered, numb and stiff,

The body detests getting up,

Scared to live another day,

Infliction of inveterate scars.

Then why do thee get up?

Blame the culprit and accomplice,

The mind and the heart,

Urging to live, rise and shine.

16th February 2007. Published in US magazine, The News.

O' Sweet Sleep

Mind beleaguered, Soul caged
Come O' sweet sleep
Fetch me away from Babel
To your island of reign,
the kingdom of dreams.
Open the gates,
show me the way,
that leadeth to fantasy.

Free my soul, let it soar
Come O' sweet sleep

11th May 2007. Published in US magazine, The News

Let it Bleed

I discern in my ashes

A speck of enervated life

Mauled and battered,

Sickened by the endless blight

Existing like a scattering moth

Engaged in an eternal strife
Away with the healer,
let it bleed

Down came the curtains,

on aeons of plight

29th June 2007. Published in US magazine, The News.

Nightmares

Throes of fraught nightmares,
glutting my inured mind
Spigot of sweet dreams goes dry
the heart feels sick and blind
Marred by death and pain,
agony that only tears can quell
A prayer before I lie to sleep
Lead me, where happiness and love dwell

12th October 2007. Published in US magazine, The News.