In Place

Everything has to be kept 

In place

Keys, soul, braclets, ear rings, 

Heart, voice messages, feelings. 

It won’t work any other way.

A slight difference 

And she would come to know:

You missed her more than you fake. 

People usually do the Otherwise

I came home

And you were weeping

In the corner of that tiny room.

Remember the day?

The barber had cut your hair way too short:

That you wanted it to be a ghazal 

But it had turned into a haiku.

Well

I fell for you that day

Without thinking

Almost instinctual

Like fish falls for bait.

I fell for you

Not because you were weeping.

You were weeping for something

That would definitely grow back.

People usually do the otherwise. 

Raqs-e-Bismil

They say

Don't scratch the wound 

When it is healing.

They just don't know 

I scratch 
so that

It doesn't go away.

I scratch so that it

Stays where it is.

I scratch its edges so as 

To feel it from the inside.

Love being the wound thus

I'm both ill and healing 

Simultaneously.