The Dancing BazaaR

(Fatima Mehru)

That’s the city that doesn’t awake!

Rages and tatters hung upon sticks

Here clouds borrow their fluff from fog and smog

Buildings are geometrically still and silent

The wind passes and stirs no window

Stars shy away from the load-shaded lights

Standing on the edge

My eyes harbinger nothing from the soul-less temples

The Sufi Corner seems quiet for the last decade

No search light would show the faces more bright

Those are gone darker in the labyrinth of walled-city balconies

Every angle invites a different eye

But to remain the same old empress of The Shahi Muhalla*

One cannot see god clearly if has lost its only picture

Who has spilt ink on the sky?

Halt

The city still wants to sleep!