A Song of Ambiguity

A Song of Ambiguity
When foreign nets
draw you and me apart
and cast us toward different countries,
the seven sacred steps of our union
turn into a thousand miles!
When I forget my mother tongue
and enter another world
as though taking on another body,
when I see the Tricolour,
when I see the lions on my passport,
I remember—
my roots are in India!
The thirst for wealth
leaves me no breath,
no time even to pause and breathe!
German maidens
cast their nets along the shores of my desire;
when they remain like women
whose love has lost all warmth,
the cracks in our bond begin to widen!
When the touch of your hormones
makes an Englishman your lover,
when life plunges headlong into desire,
once awareness returns,
life becomes a fish
that has swallowed sand!
Upon the bridge of time,
the two of us,
wayfarers who have lost our path,
wander again and again,
mistaking mirages for oases of honey,
like musafirs—wanderers without a destination—
holding a mushaira
with a solitary ek-tara.
When the word “love”
slips away from our migrations,
tears alone
become the shelter of our hearts.
When love,
burnt at the borders of mirages,
turns to ashes,
and when we can no longer tell
which way to lean
upon the scales
of money and values,
life
becomes
a song of ambiguity.