Napalm

In the semi-vivid darkness of my dreams

That were Half-forgotten in the drunken haze

Of memory – we walked on streets littered with uncut

Sapphires from the abandoned mines of Kishtawar

Love, she told me as she kissed for the last time,

Is like Napalm, it sticks to your skin and burns

Peeling away at your existence, making you

Pray for death that will never come

And once the fire kisses you –

No amount of plastic surgery or raags

From magical rabbabs will ever heal the

Scars that run from your heart to your soul

We walked till the evening dissolved into stars

Saying goodbye for one last time, as the night

Unclasped itself from the moorings of romance

And I stood alone in the semi-vivid

darkness of my dreams