Shaamlaat – شاملاٹ & Interview

Dada Baba, I am “No Man’s Land”
your grandchildren’s
hidden defeat . . . which is why
sticks must not be left under the bed but held in the hand
time can transform into a rope-bed any time
then
all of us sisters and brothers are vassals to drudgery
the cool breeze no longer blows at the well
and the water wheel’s cups don’t clang either
flour isn’t milled, nor butter ghee churned, and no hunger felt anymore
what did you bury in the foundations that they never flourished
Baba, I am the daily bread, not the serving plate that will give an account of a lifetime
bring your hookah and sit on the bed, and write—this is a note of refusal
Baba Dada, I am not the platter that remains sitting on a shelf
I am but a shadow of a tulip under the bed, on whom brown ants crawl
from all over
hurrying this way and that
taking something of me every time
I hug the grass, must be khabbal grass, warm as a bedspread
all of us sisters were hiding ourselves just for this warmth
when we had nothing with us, how we laughed from the corners of our mouths
say now, are we asking to be thrashed—khi khi khi
fragile pots are not pots, they are apprehensions, but they have
melted the durable ones
we too left the platter, at the mouth of the canon
it included the dough for missi rotis
and the lump of dough had fingerprints on it, even that of the ringed finger
since that day these brown ants have not let me alone
and then what barricade could prevent them
and we are not measured and gauged either
he also came with something to drape and clothe, but when they slip out of hands
do fate lines take away what is destined to happen
on the palm, the enclosure of the crippled berry tree
stares at the dazzle of the passing stranger’s horse
Come sit by me, my love! Don’t sit by me, my love—
I am “No Man’s Land”: I do not have the will, the choice, to serve
myself or the others
standing apart I double over with laughter
as everyone engages with a wretched woman’s tale, a whore’s story
but no one approves

Translated by Waqas Khwaja