Famida Basheer

aatmaa he said
your soul
it must awaken
it sleeps the sleep of the untried
...

</>So that is how it is!
Its not as if the sun comes up
and the sky is abruptly glorious
and everything suddenly spurts and blooms.
...

All true the spattering of rain
upon the disillusioned and the brave
dousing grasshoppers and crowds
intentional and knave
...

Once more along a bracken wood walk
where the branches whisper their family secrets
while mynas admonish
restless baby monkeys
...

I watch the bleating evening clouds
Explain themselves to soaring trees
Who wield their sticks on swaying knees.
...

My goldfish died
She lay there floating in her morning bowl
while her sister chewed upon her guts
in silent rebellion
...

I stood upon a pedestal
That grew
With it I rose
To heights so high
...

They all weep.
War poems, Documentary scripts
File pictures, all cry that
War is about the brave men;
...

Speak says the eagle
and the screeches in the caverns
shatter the rocks.
...

You saw her striding through her life
shaking off the relics of her own penury of purpose;
Her eyes seeking without knowing.
You watched as she hastily dried the rain
...

The End

So all must die and I must too
not at peace in my own bed
...

Walk away into the other room.Walk away.
What will I find there except a void
full of all that is not the previous room.
A better void because it is
...

I taste the limpid moonlit night;
the wandering cloud aglow with thirst;
whose liquid bowl innards seduce
the stars with promises of old...
...