Syed Ahmed Shah Poems

Here,
Take this knife
Sever my arms
Gorge out my eyes
...

The dismembered day lay soaked in its own blood
The jungle knows only one truth; silence
For heaven’s sake, please shut up
Your incoherent ramblings only hurt my ears …
...

Corner her in a narrow lane
Slice open her bulging belly
Fish out the unborn
And wave it on the tip of a sword
...

A cynical vision draped in moon beam
Stand frozen like a lover-ghost in the sad faced shadow of the banyan tree
At the first streak of morning light, she would leave …
...

Every year
When the trees turn yellow
I walk to the ground
Where they hold the annual book fair
...

Last night
I picked up a poem
From the river of blood
And let it bask in the sun for a while
...

Mother would never let me out of sight
If I tried to run away
She would pull back the umbilical cord with a jerk
...

The disfigured dream digs deep into the night
Layer upon layer of limpet terror
As the crude city lives on snatches a breath
I crouch like a crab under the comfort of a nightmare…
...

First you see
Then you look
Only a tiny second stands
Between you and the beasts of the bus
...

Like an aging nutch girl, the lone candle
flickered for a few seconds and died…
The smoke, unwillingly uncoiling,
rises a few inches from the dead wick
...