Embroidery

You have to learn
to uncrease the wrinkles
with the tightness of a hoop.
Use a circle of wood and a screw
to pull taut a moon of cloth.

Choose carefully
the needle, the skeins, the pattern.
Squint eye to eye and thread thin
silk. Designing fingers will arrest

an instant--a lazy daisy nest, a running
bird, herringbone leaves, feathered curlicues
closed with French flowers.

Craft a silence balanced by the stab
of needle, the clink
against thimble.

Knot with care
when you’re done.

The underside
(the flight of thread
the net
of loops knobs jumps)
will never be seen.
The precision
never undone.
~

Directions

Travel beneath the streets.
The earth was disembowelled for you.

Ask a red-spitting rickshawallah
to pedal you to me through Pahari Bhojla
He will fly by the Bulbuli Khana.
Wait a moment.

Think of birds singing there. Any bird.
Perhaps even the bulbul
in the middle of the bazar. Look sideways
at a house called Churiwalan and think of bangles.
While you jump-jolt on your seat
parts of cars will shine a black grease
shine at you. Eyes will look briskly, slowly
at engines, dashboards, tyres, bumpers and you will hurtle closer
to me.

But first, don’t forget the Chitli Kabr.
Don’t forget it could be the grave of a goat or a girl
or a cheetah or a horse.

Also, a queen was buried
somewhere near here. Razia, she is here
somewhere near Masjid Amrudwali--a mosque of bursting
guavas. The stories will
chase you like smells of halva.

Stop near Dariba Kalan.
I’m waiting here with jalebis.
Buy a pair of jhumkas for me today.
I waited so long for you.
~

Tight Slap (and other things!)

We hear the stern smack
of sound, bright flight
of palm, bite
of tight, spite
of slap.

It stretches
snug skin.
It stiffens
soft cheek.

The tuh-tuh-tuh-light of tight.
The trip trap clap of slap.

~

(and other things!)

Four of my poems were published in the current Muse India issue on Indian English Literature. Read them here.

And I should have mentioned this earlier, but I somehow did not get around to doing it. Three poems--“Madhubani”, “Shapeshifty” and “Naani to Ramher’s Bapu” will appear in Not a Muse (Haven Books--Hong Kong and Asia Publishers), an anthology of poetry edited by Kate Rogers and Viki Holmes. The coincidence of Muse and Not a Muse was too much to ignore.

~
Finally, dear Reader, please go and read this poem. While there, read some more.
~

PS: Tight Slap