There was so much on my mind from my most recent trip to New York, I simply decided to try my hand on poetry for a change. I last wrote a poem more than ten years ago, in school. I hope this one brings out the message I hope to portray.
O city of bright lights
Wielder of Liberty’s
torch,
Admire your open
spirit, your people do
Love for you they
express in art and song
A kid, I wandered
your busy roads many a time before
Countless walks, my
gaze always up
My eyes climbed
skyscrapers
Rendered my curiosity
alive
Again, rekindled my
love your spirit did
The warmth from your
people
Your love for
heritage and history
All hit me like a kid
Again, like a child
you rocked me into a slumber
As I rode the subway
fast and under
Trains passed by left
and passed by right,
A show reel played,
the windows as passing frames
A glimpse of lives flash’d
by, left me in wonder
A dog, her head
resting on her mistress’ lap,
With skull cap on, a
Jew held on to a pole, dressed in black,
Guitar chords
playing, a Latino sang a silent song
All gripped tight in
the New York minute
The show reel
disappeared, the train was gone
Dawned a realization,
Jolted from my
slumber, the subway released me
Mirrored another
city, fast and relentless
A melting pot of
peoples, colors that never mix
Chaos, a norm, yet a
rainbow nonetheless
In bloom I saw it
once
A marketplace with
street crier’s chants, I had seen
Heavy beard and
shalwar kameez he sported,
Walnuts and raisins were
among the wares he sorted
Many a pound of fruit
he traded
As thick moustach’d
Punjabis haggled and waited
Ajrak-clad Sindhis
asked a sample and ate it
Traded often a greeting
too with a Pukhtoon brother
In a big city, it
helps to know one another
The colors flourish’d
in a treasure of rust
Empress Market, a
waning heritage in the wake of dust
Beams of the rainbow,
they live and they trade
Juggling rickshaws
and buses in the city’s serenade
A moment’s lapse, a
color turns pale
The rainbow turns
black, the city’s life fades
Pearl of the Arabian
Sea, she shines
Not your bright
lights New York, but a glow sublime
Rough on the edges, a
beauty still raw
The rainbow dances,
shaping Karachi’s thaw
The subway released
me, I surfaced your bustling streets
Climb’d not the
skyscrapers this time
But a beautiful and
significant other
Towering and
magnificent, she invited me.
Stone archways
beaming
The East River
gleaming
I strolled up to
greet her
Waving at Brooklyn
beyond
A bridge lapsed in
history
In balance she kept
your pace and peace
All suspended in symmetry
Sensing my fleeting
heart, she coax’d me
In a rainless
evening, a ribbon she pasted
A band of hues
A stroke of colors
A darkening Manhattan
A background of grace
Beauty so unexpected
My heart raced
With a rainbow in your
skies, she coax’d me
“Surrender your
heart,” Brooklyn’s guardian whispered
“Let it stay in the
Apple, maybe a sown seed to cultivate later?”
The wind carried past
me, but it got no reply
In silence I stood,
the rainbow in sight
“The pearl has a
soul,” I spoke into the wind
“The pearl has a
soul, no matter how raw
A rainbow she wears
on her sleeve, if not in her skies
Her people may
suffer, but they live loud
They live in flair
and color, a rainbow in her streets.”
“My heart cannot
abandon the pearl’s debt
For all the years that she
cradled me
My heart may take more
abodes,
But cannot forsake
one in debt
My heart beats, it
lives in two cities.”
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| Empress Market, Karachi (Pakistan) named after Queen Victoria, established in 1889. Image Source: www.instecdigital.com |
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| Beautiful Brooklyn Bridge... Brooklyn's skyline visible in the background. |
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| While strolling on the Brooklyn Bridge, I saw a rainbow grace the sky (June 7, 2012). |
