Amir’s Lover

Image from the movie, Moothon (2019). 

Amir,

It has been

A week today

Since I last saw you.

From the branch

Of Plumeria

In the backyard

A crow 

Has kept cawing

For three days now.

Last Sunday

As I returned home

After Assallah prayers

My neighbor Fathima’s

Fighting rooster

Its eyes reddened

Lay dead

Beneath that same tree.

‘An evil omen’

Ana had said.

.......................................

A stretch of sea

Beside the Kabristan.

An octopus

Removed

From the push and pull of the ocean

Clings tightly 

To a slippery rock

With

Its purple tentacles.

Amir,

We moved away

From the centre

Of this oppressive life

And clung to love.

Yes,

We are ‘deviants.’

.......................................

The way Ana looked

At Saleem

When he left in his boat.

The way Mulla looked

When she saw

The first menstrual blood

Stain her hands.

Amir,

What more can you expect

Of a man, in the first

Moment of knowing love,

Except to gaze at 

You?

.............................................

Every grain of sand

On this Kabristan beach

Is cursed

By the tears

Ana shed

Thinking of Saleem

As she laid the salted fish 

To dry.

One after another

Every wave

Tries 

To wash it away

And cannot.

Amir,

This

Is a cursed shore

Just like our love.

.............................................

I have never seen

On these Kabristan shores

The red-legged 

Flamingos

That fly 

From the Caribbean

to the southern lands.

When they told me

Saleem’s oldest son

Abdullah 

Saw a pair of flamingos

Perched on Rasul’s boat

And that in awe

He called them ‘birds of the sun’

It was only you

Who pervaded

My entire soul.

Amir,

I thought 

Of our dream

To see the doves

Of Bombay’s suburbs

Through the window

In your room.

Yes,

This sea

This sky

These birds

None of them are meant for us.

¬Kasro Ponnuthurai

(Translated into English by Nedra Rodrigo)