Birth Cry Poem by Famida Basheer

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

I race my eyes through stormy seas
and shores and life all in the sky
that blankets all my earthiness;
that dried the waters of my birth..

So parched am I for having scorned
the amniotics that were mine
to swim to drink to wade to thrash!
I rammed my head against my pool

and startled into breath of air... I screamed
and screamed and screamed as if
no other soul had felt this void

No other soul was dealt this void
that neither sea nor rivers quench.
I thirst upon a moonlit drench.
Dry throated as my soul.. my song!
I must return where I belong
among the waters of my birth
where calm and smooth I soothed to sleep;
where calm and smooth I soothed to sleep.