Thursday, 16 August 2018

Forgotten Papers



After a long time today I opened
The secret chambers of my heart.
There was nothing except some
Silverfish-ravaged past papers
Of your memories.

Page by page I sold all papers of
Your memories in lieu of sixty six
Pennies to feed my filthy stomach.
The merchant was reluctant to accept
Hopeless papers of love.

He kept saying with downcast eyes,
“I don’t deal in revealed scriptures.
God forbid! It is a blasphemy.”
I told him otherwise and assured him
Of no ill fate that may befall him.

The sacred silver pages of my heart
Bear the unholy touch of an infidel.
The scripture of heart is always open
Like our fragile lives in Kashmir,
To the attacks of ruthless wild wind.

Its pages are milk-white always
Waiting for some hand to imprint
The first impressions of love.
Love! I thank the day we met
And separated silently in silence.

There are no ‘forty rules of love.’
Love has no rule to lay down and
To love is not a rule at all.
Once dead in the hunger of solitude.
It saved me and fed my belly.

Ashaq Hussain Parray


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