By Saikh md. Sabah Al-Ahmed

Circular Happiness

Although —
I have a solitary button on my worn-out shirt;
Though —
I often use pins to make up for the absent ones,
Buttons, I mean.

Then —
The round and rusted wall clock,
On my pale-yellow bedroom wall;

Again —
In the night sky,
I see the moon occupy its share among the stars;

Then again —
My round and rusted humble meal plate,
Slightly bent at places around its contours;

And finally —
My battered and bruised football,
The leather slightly peeled off at random spots;

For now —
These are the epicenters of my circular happiness

Extreme Contrast

Often —
I have seen rusted keys open new door locks;

While —
a new pair of shoes cuts into fragile ankles;

Meanwhile —
the pious has connived with the poisonous;

And now —
shadows have swapped souls.

In the Valley of Red

an elegy for Kashmir

1989 –
Emperor Jehangir’s awestruck lines
from a houseboat on Dal lake
had now started to melt,
‘Gar Firdaus ruhe zamin ast,
hamin asto, hamin asto, hamin ast’
It wasn’t the paradise on earth,
The snow-white ice had now turned crimson,
The crimson ice had now started to melt; 

Now —
In the Valley of Red,
The newborns have swapped
lullabies for Kalashnikovs,
and walnuts for cartridges,
Then —
For lactating mothers –
Breast tax for the shadows in olive green;

That evening, shortly after dusk —
Ammi’s beta didn’t return to her bosom,
nor for his hearty supper,
As beta’s favourite kebabs lay frozen,
Abba went searching,
Only to find beta’s frozen body
lay motionless in the nearby paddy fields,
and encircled by those very shadows in olive green.

*Ammi: Mother

*Abba: Father

*Beta: Son

This poem was first published in WITNESS: The Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent (2021), an anthology of “Poetry of Dissent from the Margins” as seen by Indian poets, and edited by Nabina Das.

Saikh Md. Sabah Al-Ahmed is the winner of the Reuel International Prize for Poetry (2019) for Best Upcoming Poet from North East India. His poems have appeared in Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi), Kritya, Frequenze Poetiche (Italy), Asian Times (Canada), The Alipore Post, Garhwal Post (Uttrakhand), The Telegraph, The Assam Tribune, The Sentinel and in prestigious international and national poetry anthologies such as The Roseate Sonnet Anthology (100 poems by 102 poets of ‘The Significant League’) and Witness: The Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent. His debut poetry collection Tranquil Musings was reviewed by Jnanpith awardee Dr. Mamoni Raisom Goswami and released by legendary (former) BBC journalist Sir Mark Tully at the Asia International Literary Festival in 2010. His forthcoming books are Urban Musing: Musings on Guwahati and more… (Eastern Book House, Guwahati) and The Stink of Aroma (Writers Workshop, Kolkata). Visit poetsabah.com for more of his elegant verse.

Banner picture is by Suryaansh Maithani and is downloaded from Unsplash.com