Analemma (Performed at Unwanted Words Awards 2023)
Hum
Hum aur tum
Me
Me and you
Hum
Hum saath hein
Us
We are together
What if hum aur tum
Me and you
Is a song we sing without opening the mouth
Because the opening would actually predict closure
Or What if hum aur tum
Me and you
Is a song we sing without opening the mouth
Because this indeterminacy
Of words unknown
Is the most devoted gesture I could offer you
This is my devotion
Sentence us to death
With words of better futures
A collective rite of passage
That is a righteous passage
For a change
Pass me the names of the deceased
And entangle them with my tongue
Spread the word
And the worlds
Of our beloved deceased
Unleash the umami
Taste of utopia
Marrying our saliva
Didn’t you know that
Lately
You have been listening to etherical voices
Vibrating through
The debris and the ruins
Of children’s dreams ruined
Didn’t you know that
Lately
You have been inhaling the ashes
of burning hijabs
Didn't you know that
That the raindrops dripping your neck
Are the reincarnated tears of the dispossessed
The ones who left home
Found land
Yet remained homeless
Didn’t you know
We live in a world
Where veins have become pipelines
And blood a commodity
Hemoglobin fuel
Ruby gasoline
How do you build genuine belonging?
Can difference be the portal
Replacing the border?
I crave for you to be my holder
Swallow hope
And digest hope’s failure
Through the communal organ
I prayed to be akin
To your most neglected history
Stitch wings on your memories
And fly me across infinite fields of possibilities
Show me
How things used to be done
Which songs used to be song
How time used to be passed
Show me
Queer ancestral pizzaz
We’re here
One groof at the time
Extending our existence
One groof at the time
Offering resistance
One groof at the time
The path of least resistance
‘’How do I narrate our stories In the language of the oppressors?’’
I asked
Laughingly, They said:
‘’Child, it’s written in your feet
so go ahead
In rhythm we meet’’