Saturday, October 2, 2010

Layla, Don't Call Me A Traitor Tonight

Don't Call Me a Traitor Tonight

(inspired by Agha Shahid Ali's "Tonight")

Written in Political Science Class on 18/09/10

I am the brooding silhouette by the window,

I am the sliver in the darkness,

A refugee in the prison of belief,

There is one of me, there are more of me,

I am bending, sweeping the streets of my own memory,

Now, picking up the fragments of my own history.

My reality convicted me, it was my imagination that pardoned,

At the gallows of my own conscience, I die a happy man.

Layla, don't call me a traitor tonight

Layla, don't call me a traitor tonight.

2 comments:

Fudge said...

"And I, Shahid, only am escaped to tell thee-
God sobs in my arms. Call me Ishmael tonight."

I absolutely LOVE Tonight. And I love your inspired version.

I told you. You're good. :)

sushruthi said...

I cannot believe I'm saying this about poetry (damn you, you horrible boy) BUT

This is beautiful :)