Travel Prayer

(a translation of Muzaffar Karim's urdu nazm Dua-e-Safar)

I don't know travel prayer

But whenever you bid me adieu 

With kisses

My each journey rested

Within the enchanting halo of your lips 

The touch of your lips 

My love 

Is like my mother's prayers.

Now 

When the brace of your lips 

Is no longer with me 

And this arduous journey is turning odysseic

It's time to learn travel prayer.

Shouldn't We?

"Frankly speaking Mubashir"

She said

"I think 

Your poetry has lost that charm

That grace which it once possessed."

I smiled and replied

"Shouldn't we meet often then?"

Tragedy

The tragedy is not

That we are incredibly far from each other.

That we are passionately still alive in ourselves

That's tragedy.

Hijr

She asphyxiates me with her kisses

When she's not around

Separation

It seems 

Is the mother of love

Poetic Felony

When caught 

They were found in an intimate position

Trying to understand a poem

Which ended abruptly.