Instagram Poems
A collection poems posted on Instagram.
Tag: short poem
An Unfinished Business
A message from an unfinished poem to its poet.
By Shayaan Khusro
You started crafting me with a few taps on your keypad.
You cracked your fingers after a few verses
And went to sleep when words stopped flowing.
I would have been content had you given up then
And sent me to the Recycling Bin.
But no, you promised to complete me
Down to the very last character.
Yet here I am,
A mere .doc file in your smartphone
With pretty words typed in it
Waiting for a few more verses to complete me,
Unsure, whether you even think of me
Or are my stanzas fated to remain buried in your mind,
Never to be read, praised or criticized.
But I warn you, do not keep me waiting any longer
As you have kept the unfinished poems in your diary
For they can give you papercuts
Only if you bother touching them
But I can and will bring your phone down with me
When my impatience and the things you download
Eventually corrupt me.
So, either open my file and finish what you started
Or come up with some new rhymes
To write a lamentation for your phone
That you will probably leave incomplete anyway.
एक कहानी अनसुनी
कहानियाँ सब के पास हैं, पर उन्हें बताने की हिम्मत सिर्फ कुछ लोगों में हैं। ये कविता उन सारी कहानियों के लिए है जो कभी नहीं बताई गईं।
एक कहानी है,
जिसे न सच माना जाता है
न झूठ माना जाता है,
जिसकी न तारीफ होती है
न आलोचना की जाती है,
क्योंकि ये न लिखी गई
न सुनाई गई,
पर ये दबी रह गई
उस लेखक के विचारों में
जो वक्त आने पर मिट गया।
-शायान ख़ुसरो
Transliteration:
Ek kahani hai,
Jise na sach mana gaya
Na jhooth mana gaya
Jiski na tareef hoti hai
Na alochna ki jaati hai
Kyunki ye na likhi gayi
Na sunai gayi.
Par ye dabi reh gayi
Us lekhak ke vicharon mein
Jo vakt aane par mit gaya.
-Shayaan Khusro
Click here to read the original English version ‘A Story Untold’.
A Celestial Love Tangle
If love is to revolve around someone then stars and planets are out of luck.
By Shayaan Khusro
It’s ironic that humans look to the sky for matchmaking
When space is filled with miserable lovers.
If you don’t believe me,
Just grab a telescope
And see for yourself.
Moon loves Earth
Because to him she is all the life that is
In a universe that seems as dry and dead as him.
Earth loves Sun
Because in a sky full of stars
He is all the warmth there is to her.
Sun is the saddest,
For he is just a speck in a cluster of lovers more brilliant,
Who all love Sagittarius A*,
A cruel black hole who only takes and never gives,
Yet Sun cannot leave her for she is all that holds him.
Despite her cruelty, the black hole is pitiable too,
For her lover and love story may or may not be real.
And as if space wasn’t miserable enough,
With celestial bodies trapped in an orbit
Around ones that revolve around others,
Any love story that could happen here is doomed
Because everyone is drifting apart faster than light.
But despair not,
For in a sky full of miserable lovers,
There are a few happy couples that return each other’s gravity
And revolve around each other for life.
A Murder Most Foul
With winter testifying against the culprits.
By Shayaan Khusro
Under a bridge near the metro
Flows a drain, black and wide,
Filled with filth that man made
With their hands and otherwise.
Carcasses float upon its surface
As uncovered as the drain itself,
Drawing bugs, crows and hawks
In air, pigs and rats on the ground.
Everyone who passes by wonders
‘Why couldn’t it be a river instead?’
Yet the December mornings burn
The sky and the water grey
And subdue the drain’s stench
Turning it as clear as a mirror,
Reminding us that a long time ago,
It was a river, beautiful and alive,
Till in arrogance and ignorance
We choked its blood vessels,
Gouged its organs for supper
And defecated upon its corpse.
Unfortunate, Wicked & Wretched
This is the result of every romantic movie, soap opera, anime, K-Drama and web series I’ve watched over the years.
By Shayaan Khusro
How unfortunate he was,
He loved a girl
Who loved someone else.
How wicked he was,
He plotted and waited
To have her.
How wretched he was,
She was not the other’s,
She was no one’s.
How determined he was,
To see her smile
At any cost.
How content he was,
She was with someone else,
She was happy.
What if Mother Earth is feeling suicidal?
It’d explain a lot really, still our fault.
By Shayaan Khusro
What if Mother Earth is feeling suicidal?
And human evolution is nothing but
The longest ongoing suicide attempt?
After all, of over eight million species
She could choose from why select the one
With no regard for her fate or wellbeing
Except to end it all in smoke and polythene?
But wouldn’t a comet to the surface suffice,
To end the suffering since before the age of ice?
Earth already tried that, several times in fact
Yet, except craters and dinosaurs, she is intact.
On the other hand, though slow as a snail
Mankind is a deadly poison seeping through
Air, water and land, killing one life at a time.
But why end a life meant to last aeons more?
Perhaps she misses her siblings Mars and Venus?
Maybe she is wary of being the only living planet
In a cold dead universe void of others like her?
Maybe she feels overwhelmed by her fate
Of being swallowed by a burning red giant.
Perhaps all of the above in varying proportions?
So, if Earth is depressed and committed to suicide
Should we see this euthanasia through the end
And jump onto the next ship and then another
Till all the worlds end the same way she will?
Or do we wrap Earth with trees and flowers
And give her the therapy she always required
To show her that life isn’t as woeful as it seems?
ईंट
Hindi version of my poem ‘iint’.
सही डब्बे में फेंके
अपशिष्ट अलगाव अभियान के प्रति लिखित।
Written for an awareness campaign on waste segregation.
कविता:
जनाब अर्ज़ किया है, कि
डब्बे में तो फेकता है हर कोई।
डब्बे में तो फेकता है हर कोई।
मगर आक़िल वो जो सही कूड़े को सही डब्बे में फेंके।
मगर आक़िल वो जो सही कूड़े को सही डब्बे में फेंके।
काग़ज़, लोहे, प्लास्टिक को नीले डब्बे में डाले।
छिल्के, गुठली, चिंगम को हरे डब्बे में डाले।
क्यूंकि हर चीज़ की एक सही जगह है।
क्यूंकि हर चीज़ की एक सही जगह है
और कूड़े की भी अपनी सही जगह है।
इसलिए सूखे को नीले में फेंके।
और हरे में गीले को फेंके।
वातावरण को बचाए।
कूड़ा अलग करके, सही डब्बे में फेंके।
कूड़ा अलग करके, सही डब्बे में फेंक।।
– शायान खुसरो
Transliteration
Janab arz kiya hai, ki
Dabbe mein to fekta hai har koi
Dabbe mein to fekta hai har koi
Magar Aquil wo jo sahi koore ko sahi dabbe mein feke
Magar Aquil wo jo sahi koore ko sahi dabbe mein feke
Kagaz, lohe, plastic ko neele dabbe mei daale
Chhilke, guthli aur chingam ko hare dabbe mei daale
Kyunki har cheez ki ek sahi jagah hai
Kyunki har cheez ki ek sahi jagah hai
Aur koode ki bhi apni sahi jagah hai
Isliye sookhe ko neele mei feke
Aur hare mei geele ko daale
Vatavaran ko bachaye
Koora alag karke, sahi dabbe mei feke
Koora alag karke, sahi dabbe mei feke.
-Shayaan Khusro
The Last Play
Just some lines I wrote before my last act with my streetplay and theatre group Aghaaz.
By Shayaan Khusro
How can I smile
When my heart is bleeding
How can I rage
When I am hollow within
How do I monologue
When words and thoughts
War with my feelings
How do I walk onto the stage
Knowing this is the last time
Knowing there’s nothing afterwards
How can I be brave
Knowing I’ll be remembered
For how this play goes
Unsure if it’ll be loved or hated
Knowing there’ll be no chance
To correct my mistakes.
I can’t, I can only act
Better than I ever have
And hope that this end
Is indeed a new beginning.
The Jotting Pen 