Perhaps it is not your famed beauty- a poem by Javed Alam

Perhaps it is not your famed beauty
 
(In her absence, I created her image - Mahmoud Darwish)
 
Perhaps it is not your famed beauty
Creating this absence. Perhaps 
It is waking up to familiar faces, walking 
In familiar streets; hearing 

An Azaan, or Guru Granth Sahib 
In your neighbourhoods. 
Perhaps it is feasting 
On a Wazwan, or enjoying lamb skewers 

At Khayam Chowk, or maybe
It is blathering with friends 
On a bridge railing, in a college 
Canteen, or in a paint shop.

Perhaps it is strolling
On that, amorous, residency road,
Or growing up listening poetry 
Of Sheikh-ul-Alam 
 
And Habba Khatoon.
Maybe it is the joy 
Of Eid shopping, and lining up 
In front of grandfather 
 
For the Eidi.
Maybe it is the aroma 
Of fresh bread, and the taste 
Of Nun chai, in our mornings.
 
Maybe it is your women tying 
Their prayer threads, whispering 
Their modest wishes, to the mausoleums 
Of your Sufi saints. 

Or maybe it is hearing 
Shameema Dev, on Radio 
Kashmir, sing. 
Maybe it is just watching 

Your face, in every season, without 
Carrying the sack 
Of longing in our hearts.
Perhaps your memories 

Shall continue to orbit
Around our yearning souls,
Like satellites, until eternity.
Perhaps all this excavation 

Of memories, this leaning
On our history, this living 
In the past, is the story
Of every uprooted plant.
Notes-

• Wazwan- a Kashmiri cuisine 
• Sheikh-ul-Alam - A highly revered Sufi saint and a poet of Kashmir 
• Habba Khatoon- She was the last queen and celebrated poetess of Kashmir. 
• Eidi-  a Muslim tradition to give small sums of money (Eidi) to children on an Eid day.
  

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