The Dome of Life and Other Poems

    By Qaisar Bashir

    The Dome of Life

    The houses
    that stood there yesterday
    Capped with golden hay
    And the grapevines
    that welcomed us like hosts

    Have become primordial images
    Carved by the sailors of imagination
    In the archetypal domes of life –
    Their traces have been removed
    From earth, our forefathers inherited.

    Tonight,
    I muster courage,
    And walk through the door
    Of the dome of life –

    On a beautifully designed wall,
    I find my house, yours next,
    Wailing like socially upset brides
    Longing for a homecoming;

    On the other,
    I saw our grapevines
    Happily swinging and dancing
    On the song of love

    Unwilling to come alive
    From the blissful hangover.

    In the Graveyard of Heaven

    It’s eight past seven,
    And I am home,
    Stitching my muse
    On a crimson chinar leaf
    I have recently rescued
    From the famished Dal;

    On the canvas of the leaf,
    I drew a corpse
    Exactly the way I had it found
    Lying on a blood-stained bed of turf
    Like a bride
    Waiting
    For the arms of love

    And be buried
    In the graveyard of heaven.

    Qaisar Bashir is a Kashmiri poet, translator, and reviewer from Bandipora, Jammu and Kashmir, India. He has a master’s degree in English Literature from Kashmir University. His first poetry collection The Cry of Wounded Souls was published in 2019. Once Upon A Time (2017) is his translation of Akh Dour a Kashmiri novel by Bansi Nirdoush. He has widely has published in reputed journals such as The Criterion, Langlit, Muse India, Setumag, Inverse journal and Kashmir Lit. Crimson Metaphors is his second poetry collection.

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