Closure

Today, after so many days,
I’m flipping through the pages of memory.
The papers are sticking to each other,
Blanketing each other’s warmth.
The flavour of separating them is still on my tongue.
It tastes somewhat like loneliness without you.

All those words I’d crocheted for you
Are now forgotten like Christmas sweaters.
Whole night I used to sleep with them as pillows.
The drool of those nights is still there as dry stains.

If anything has changed, it is this:
Now, I’ve stopped writing in this diary.
Now, in someone else’s courtyard, I grind memories.

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Translated from my Hindi poem, क्लोज़र

Closure

āj kāFī dinon bād
kucH yādon ke saFhe palaTne laga hūn
chipakne lagīn hein kāgaz ek dusre se
ek dusre ki garmāhaT ko chādar banaye oDH rahīn hein
unko alag karne ka zāikā abhī bhī zubān par lagā hei
kucH kucH tumbin tanhāyī sa swād hei

vo sāre alfāz jo tumhāre liye bune the
Christmas kī sweater jaise bhulā diye gayein hein
rāt rāt bhar jab takiyā banāyein so jātā thā unpe
un rāton kī lār abhī bhī sūkhe dāg se padein hein

bas kucH badlā hei to ye hei ki
ab is Diary mein likhnā CHoD diyā hei
ab kisī aur ke āngan mein yādein pīstā hūn