Parrot Eyes Lost

[I'm on my own.. This bird has flown.]

'सलाखों में देख जो प्राणी है…

लाखों में एक इसकी वाणी है!'

"कितने में दिया?" 'हुज़ूर एक हज़ार!'

I met her at the Sunday bazaar.

I brought her home and opened the cage,

Yet stayed shut her colourful plumage:

Feathers were fettered not because she choosed to-

She shackled herself to what she was used to.

'राग भैरव यह जब गाती है…

आग की हर लौ जल आती है!'

My days were filled with her wondrous song,

Still- I knew something was wrong.

A bird so rare, a parrot so pretty

Must not die in a cage in a city;

Soar she must, her voice should fly

And mingle with charms of the Farm’s blue sky!

I flung her cage lo! from my balcony,

Mid-air, she spread her wings all falcony;

‘fore she fell, she emerged from the prison,

And soar she did, till she merged with Horizon.

My dear Parrot Eyes flew so far,

The dazzling sun became a star,

And ever since she's taken to flight,

She only comes and sings in the night.

Black

[Out of sight, yet...]

It's true I cannot behold you:
You're in a foreign land-
But if e'er I want to hold you,
I just outstretch my hands.

With my hands, I read your letters,
I feel your smiles and frowns,
Like the weft of knitted sweaters,
I feel your ups and downs.

The air does fetch your heartbeat thumps
Like whispers in my ear;
And when my hair goes up in bumps,
I know you're drawing near.

I love it when we're speaking slow-
You're talking in my tongue;
And your fragrant breath does go
In-out-into my lungs.

No! I love you not through lenses-
Your beauty's in my mind;
I love you more through other senses,
Thank God that love is blind.