A LOVE SONG IN THE BATTLEFIELD
1
we inhabit a battlefield,
blood and bodies around.
nothing to wrap except deadly weapons.
yet
our songs are flowery
hued in green
as we dream a quiet solitude.
2
we walk along the rivers
imagining an ocean at the end of our eyes,
never knowing
what connects a river and an ocean.
rivers end up in a desert and
oceans fly into unknown skies,
as our gods and goddesses await immersion.
3
we devour sacred foods
dance around all possible divinities,
and share a hundred stories
of joy or sadness that
flow into our blood, seeping deep
into the lower depths of the body.
4
we meet quite surprisingly at crossroads,
embrace each other.
we spread our arms to the horizon,
all set for the day of lights and kites
knowing fully well that
we’re those little lamps left in the glowing river.
5
breathing next to the bombshells,
limping around blood canals
we still walk through huge utsav pandals,
perform namaz amidst thousands of believers,
then, we vanish into our narrow lanes
shutting down every innermost chord of the heart.
6
didn’t you see that
me and you remain
all alone
on this day of
lights and kites…
*Utsav – festive/festival
Afsar Mohammad teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, and he has published five volumes of poetry in Telugu. His English poetry collection is forthcoming. He has also published a monograph with the Oxford University Press titled, The Festival of Pirs: Popular Islam and Shared Devotion in South India. His current work, Remaking History: 1948 Police Action and the Muslims of Hyderabad, has been published from Cambridge University Press. His poetry collection, Evening with a Sufi, was published by Red River.
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