I am a metal man

With a heart frozen and canned.

So I refuse to die

And with sheer will I will survive.

Let me out of this concrete cage;

See how fast I get back to my old ways.

Once the fires have smouldered down to ashes,

See me light my own and reignite the furnaces.

I keep running out of fuel and fodder.

I need to feed my greed, hatred and anger.

After all, who will I become if I don’t soon resume

My relentless strife to more own and consume?

#

I am a human being

With a soul tucked away deep within.

But now I yearn again to live

And in myself to reseek belief.

Around my mind to think narrow and small

I was the one who build these high walls.

Long before any unseen enemy found power,

I was the one choking myself to death, only slower.

I muster within me hope, faith, love and courage.

I cremate with the departed my greed, hatred and rage.

After all, why did I survive if I go back and resume

That relentless strife to more own and consume?

#

We are now at a fork in the road.

The choice that we make shall not be ours alone.

Our children will reap fruits from seeds that today we sow.

In a world full of death and hate or life and love will they grow?

This morning I woke up,

Switched on my computer

And felt like setting a ‘poetry-wallpaper’ on my desktop.

For some reason,

Google Search displayed only Urdu poetry.

I couldn't understand any

But, sincerely, wished that I could.

#

My friends whisper in my ears – yes – virtually.

They tell me these images are not real poetry.

No, I don’t ask, “What is real?”

But reply abstractedly,

“It sure does the job, after all I was amazed

And elated, albeit, ignorantly.

I watered the little sapling

Dreaming of a cool and shaded tomorrow

And the fruits that, someday, I may reap off it,

Forgetting that the young one was just a subtle herb.

I bit into the juicy fruit

Aspiring health and wellness eternal,

While worrying too about its unknown origins,

Forgetting, in the process, to savour its taste.

I hurried on and on, on the endless busy road,

Squeezing through to make it before everyone else,

As if racing the very earth and time itself,

Forgetting to look around, staying ever unaware.

I’ve lived through many relations

Some - with casual dedication, others - responsibly,

Ever awaiting a perfect life full of perfect people,

Forgetting to live the little moments that were life too, in fact.

I laid bricks upon bricks

Raising my walls higher than my neighbours’,

Seeking to build a tower that reached heavens,

Forgetting that I only needed a house with a roof.

Here I am, back at it again
Playing with the frayed hems
Scratching open healed wounds
Pulling those old heartstrings

I am listening to that song again
With the intro that wouldn't end
I am searching the right words again
To describe what I cant understand

I cant see clear and straight again
Loving the fog and haze again
With both my hands outstretched
I'm waiting to be reached out again

Overflowing my poor heart again
Trying to see the way I used to again
Starting the incomplete story again
Here I am, back at it again

I never came up and said hi,
Never did you too smile back.
And that was that to our story,
It never began never did it end.

For this today I truly apologise
To you and to you and to all of you,
For having once dreamt a life
And now living an entirely another.

I fall in love quite easily
And just as easily move on too,
With a name, a face and a few wishes
Bundled up as memories cherished.

For this today I truly apologise
To you and just to you alone,
Not for living the best dream with me
But for being the one yet the last.