Pooja Nansi (b. 1981)
SELECTED POEMS
Poem for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Ending in a Beginning
Yours is the music of quiet 4am, of solitary afternoons that seem /
unending. Yours the music of desire, the exhale of the Urdu /
word for 'want', like the sound of a lung first learning breath. /
Yours the shape of my father's mouth turning into song. Yours /
the voice of sandpaper and husk, like the call for God coming /
out of a garbage truck throat. Yours the voice of surrender, /
surrender, surrender to the longing of the living, to all /
bottomless need to be filled, to find another, to be whole. Yours /
the poet's knowledge of how to moan a word, yours the low /
humming of all the world's restless stirring. Yours the yearning, /
the always and forever yearning, yours the trembling lips of a /
muted string waiting to burst into passion. Yours the hunger of a /
fakir who has forsaken begging to shout from the rooftops. Yours /
the sweet wine of grief, the unbridled intoxication which you /
deliver like a lover's return. Yours the lust. Yours the notes that /
land like a hand tapping on the tight drumskin of my heart, then /
the strum of the harmonica which struggles to keep up with /
your voice soaring into the sky. Yours the utterance of devotion, /
yours the prophet's chant, yours the treacherous winding road /
harmony, yours the fevered ecstasy. Yours a wild animal wail /
from before words, the sound of the soul freed of the ribcage, /
from some ancient deep forgotten history, yours every exuberant /
end, yours every troubled beginning.
by Pooja Nansi
from We Make Spaces Divine (2021)
