– Nabina Das
The rust of your migrant shame Dirt under my grown nails I clip off those each sorry moons
Overpasses are our shades of clouds nimbus incantations of new love our rendezvous that Dilli Haat chants
Oh take off the tired ghoongroos Chunari chunari the brass-bells scream Sweat drops on your toes dense and limp
The scatter of broken nightly bangles Each a mirror our breath can watch The beat cop takes the hours home
The paan taint of your sad old lips Gulkand songs of Charkhi-Dadri lore I won’t go there to see the waterless well
My mehboob, you be the summer tang I your salt of the fickle streets of desire lip to lip, we dance on love’s continent Your goatskin drum looks east The forgotten lullaby wakes with dreams where Mehrauli ‘s naked goddess sleeps
Your teacups are my stale eyes They read my fortune stirred in rancid milk An arm of silk, the other – raw tender skin
Rasiya Dilli melts in a red gulali sun The streets a tired camel back My mehboob, so meet me elsewhere love!
* The above poem was written as a response to CITY AS STUDIO fellowship from Sarai-CSDS, Delhi Nabina Das is a poet and writer based in Hyderabad.
nabinamail@yahoo.com