05/01/05, Barki
From Farishta
between the wheat countries
somewhere
hunched like those women who chew beedis – we listened – unbathed unshat to our rusks
and watched thatches of earth
become our new home
I thought of when we played shuttle once
you sang
you wouldn’t shut up
that song from Umrao Jaan your dada sings with his snake hookah around his neck
didn’t I say
something like I will never marry
that I wished to be those bikers we saw while picking our marigolds
riding to Leh from the south like they meant to burgle the Himalayas –
I bit Asif when he rode me for the first time
last night
I feared he will find my letter and –
if this reaches
you better not write back a poem