No Road Back Home

In this forgotten place I have no lover’s touch
Each night brings darker dreams, I have no amulet
My life is all I ask, I have no other thirst
These silent thoughts torment, I have no way to hope

Who I once was, what I’ve become, I cannot know
Who could I tell my heart’s desires, I cannot say
My love, the temper of the fates I cannot guess
I long to go to you, I have no strength to move

Through cracks and crevices I’ve watched the seasons change
For news of you I’ve looked in vain to buds and flowers
To the marrow of my bones I’ve ached to be with you
What road led here, why do I have no road back home

---Abduqadir Jalalidin (a detained Uighur poet, bears witness to the suffering of Uighurs detained in Chinese so-called “reeducation” camps) 

Onion

The smoothness of onions infuriates him
so like the skin of women or their expensive clothes
and the striptease of onions, which is also a disappearing act.
He says he is searching for the ultimate nakedness
but when he finds that thin green seed
that negligible sprout of a heart
we could have told him he'd be disappointed.
Meanwhile the onion has been hacked to bits
and he's weeping in the kitchen most unromantic tears.

--- Katha Pollitt

आठ मिनट छियालीस सेकंड

दो मिनट नहीं
आठ मिनट छियालीस सेकंड का
मौन रखा गया अमेरिका में
जॉर्ज फ़्लॉयड की स्मृति-सभा में

गोरा पुलिस अफ़सर
आठ मिनट छियालीस सेकंड
अपने घुटने से
जॉर्ज फ़्लॉयड के
गले को दबाता रहा
जब तक कि उनकी जान
नहीं चली गयी
और वह कहते रहे :
"मैं साँस नहीं ले पा रहा हूँ"

किसी मज़लूम की याद में
महज़ दो मिनट का
मौन मत रखो
इस रस्म को बदलो

कोई तो रिश्ता हो
तुम्हारे सुलूक का
मृतक के अपमान
और यातना से

---पंकज चतुर्वेदी