Poem : Asiya Naqvi

I watched it from a distance though
It was connected to me.

It gazed, ogled, snapped and stared-

With ascending sun, it shattered
With darkening night, it sharpened.

I smelled it from distance and yet it was in me-
every fragment detached, isolated,
still entangled in me.

I puked, perspired, sneezed, and bled
but inside me it grew
and clouded my brain.

With clinging restlessness, it ignited.

the sense lingered in me-
Itching, tickling, pinching and freezing.

the meaning,
as if  I heard  from a distance –
echoing in me.
It yelled, whimmed and whipped :

the nailed coffin
in which it died,

the detached soul
like which it swayed.

[ Asiya Naqvi writes in English, Hindi and Urdu. She can be contacted at aaasiya.naqvi@gmail.com.]

[The featured painting is  of Salvador Dali’s famous work, “Persistence of memory”.]