गिलहरी

वोह इस मकां की
मेरी आखरी दोस्त ,
टुकर टुकर मेरे हाथों
से निवाले चुनती ,
हर अफसुर्दा-दिली
नज़र नज़र तकती
किसी तिफल की मानिन्द
छुपती दिखती ,दिखती छुपती ,
बीते कुछ रोज ,इधर
शायद  गयी थी किधर .
कोई तितली ,कोई जुगनू
परिंदा भी नहीं
कोई आहट कोई शमां
कोई नटखट ही नहीं ...
वीरां सा वही घर था
लुटा दर था ,कि चुप से,
उसी दरीचे से छुप कर
वोह बोली ,"माफ कर दो ना
में थी तो यहीं .....
अब नहीं जाना कहीं .......


बहुत भूख लगी है "

Brother....A Wish

Will cataracts of soul ever find
sizzling scalpels of desires
that sever a loveless blurriness
and slowly stoke its ashen fires ?
A scythe that will cut a swathe
thru' weedy furrows of the mind
shyly, strangely sowing spring
trailing autumns far behind .
Be there then a luminous halo
dreaming , unbenownst brought
who steals the wrath of spoken word
and lays a whisper in my heart....

कोई राह नयी

मेरे हबीब ,क्या तुम चलोगे साथ मेरे ?
दिल में फिरोजां इक उम्मीद लिए
कि खरामा ,खरामा कदम-ब-कदम
यह दश्त छूट जायेगा ;
दिल-ए -जारे मसाफत खत्म होगी
तो पहुंचेंगे उस गली में जहां ,
चंद गीत वफाओं के महकते हैं अभी ,
जहां कोई शाम रूठती ही नहीं ,
और कोई शब झूठ न बोले ,
गुज़रे जहां पे रात इस ख्वाब के साथ
कल होगा मेरे ही हाथ में हुज़ूर का हाथ ...

मेरे हबीब , क्या तुम चलोगे साथ मेरे  ??

An Eden No More

Round the shrine of joy I went
looking for a cheery harbour,
there nary was a niche , a nook ,
a chink in its stubborn armour.
Reached the threshold , ranted , raved ,
"wouldya please open them doors
let me feel the warmth of love
 and overcome the heart that gores"
Silence...and I retrace my steps
still haunted by my fears,
my shoulders slumped , face a-wash
with the bootless bygone years.
Tonight,as she wells in my eye
a droplet will I borrow
for the taste of joy must come to one
who slowly swallows sorrow.......

Beyond horizons....

Another dawn, and  I hearken back
at what was meant to be
it never was ;and never did
ah ! the failure to `see'.
Eyes a-blinker,and stone-tone deaf
un-abled by a stream of babble
I ploughed on , stumbled ,was whip-lashed
by that rousing throng of rabble.
Is it a leading from above
or fashioned by some hand
that this our life is an incubus
or a never-never land ?
Be there ever a jaunty day
when the hours are  rhythmic dancers
when questions that shyly swim in your eyes
are sweeter than their answers ??

Jerusalem

Eviscerated and bled awhile
in what was once called love
strangely , slowly ,spaced apart
by a real-life `turtle-dove '.
Besotted ,first ,and then impaled
on the truth-cross of a word
aghast, agape, at what really was
a rhetoric of absurd.
And yet, I , stand, a bare-clad lad
waiting, waiting, in real-time
for a healing hand, a warming look
and a hug that is totally mine.....

Facebook.....

I stare a-while at my profile
and steal a look at Yonder
the heart a-moment feels a shaft
and then I do so ponder...
A loving wish , fire and ice
some people that hate me not
they may say THAT is nothing much
but ain't it still a lot...?