Staying Alive
Staying alive
is not in big things
but in small details:
the sex provoking smell
of the fat jasmine,
my eyes’ travelogue
on her slip of a hip
and firm, flaunting breasts,
the aroma of fish-curry
from my mother’s kitchen,
the oxygenated blood
after a jogging run,
a phrase from a poem
stapled to my mind,
a last ball win,
the resultant euphoria
after a riot of sex,
the squadron of geese
on a rainy day.
Feeling them,
my mind gets
an erection and
telegraphs a message
to the rest of my body:
we are staying alive.
The Song of a Radical
I must address myself
to the material need - like
hunger, pain and torture,
and learn to feel the bullet’s
geometric race through the body.
The wind that plays
upon my beard,
the knife that draws
a line of blood
are important beyond
all the rants of the saints.
Every tongue of flame,
each round pebble,
is more material
than Marx himself.
If narrate I must
a tale of the spirit
it must’ve the hard contours
of a basic desire:
like lust or thirst.
M.Nazir Ali is an Associate Professor of English working in Tagore Arts College Puducherry, India. Kavya Bharati and Differsense will bring forth two of his poems each, and though not a prolific writer, Nazir’s writing has an unmistakable sting and bite which happen to be his thumb prints. Economical in expression, sharp in imagery, Nazir wants readability and enjoyment brought back to poetry.
Staying alive
is not in big things
but in small details:
the sex provoking smell
of the fat jasmine,
my eyes’ travelogue
on her slip of a hip
and firm, flaunting breasts,
the aroma of fish-curry
from my mother’s kitchen,
the oxygenated blood
after a jogging run,
a phrase from a poem
stapled to my mind,
a last ball win,
the resultant euphoria
after a riot of sex,
the squadron of geese
on a rainy day.
Feeling them,
my mind gets
an erection and
telegraphs a message
to the rest of my body:
we are staying alive.
The Song of a Radical
I must address myself
to the material need - like
hunger, pain and torture,
and learn to feel the bullet’s
geometric race through the body.
The wind that plays
upon my beard,
the knife that draws
a line of blood
are important beyond
all the rants of the saints.
Every tongue of flame,
each round pebble,
is more material
than Marx himself.
If narrate I must
a tale of the spirit
it must’ve the hard contours
of a basic desire:
like lust or thirst.
M.Nazir Ali is an Associate Professor of English working in Tagore Arts College Puducherry, India. Kavya Bharati and Differsense will bring forth two of his poems each, and though not a prolific writer, Nazir’s writing has an unmistakable sting and bite which happen to be his thumb prints. Economical in expression, sharp in imagery, Nazir wants readability and enjoyment brought back to poetry.
