Menagerie of Words

"Birth
is painful
because of
the unexpected
blood and bruising
the bruised ego
falls hard
from the tree of life
and then there
laughter rises
filling the stinky air." Poonam Srivastava

"Stream of consciousness is the dream and the nightmare which haunts the great grand daughter of my ancestors in this snowy and slushy land." Bina Sharif

Disappearance of me

I arrive to my country to disappear. I don't actually arrive to disappear but the country makes me.
First the men of that country makes me disappear, then the women, then the roads, then the streets, then the lights, then the darkness, then, next day I shout," I am here, I am here, I came from so far away to appear, appear amongst you my people to enjoy, to converse, to participate, to argue, to fight, to analyse, to be part of the table where we used to sit and eat, to be part of the tea party in the garden with jasmin smell and narges key phool. But they make me disappear the moment I appear.
When I come back, some of the New Yorkers say to me, " where were you ? you disappeared."
"yes," I say to them. "Yes, I went away."
"where? " they ask
"I went home." I say
"oh1 how nice." They say
"yes, very nice." I say. "yes, it was very nice."