The hesitant morning is so cold, you wish to put on some warm fleece and by noon you regret that decision, thinking that had I held onto my own warmth a little longer, I wouldn’t be smothered by this unbearable heat of October sun. By the evening, you justify the hardships you went through and kaud yourselves for the decision you made. Such is love– a day of October is nothing but the mockery of human misery.
Author Archives: Adil Hussain
Really? We doin'that?
The itch
This shitty paradox of not-wanting-to-talk-about-this but the irksome itch to do the same. Are we getting somewhere with this? But know this for sure, the more you scratch, the more it itches. And that’s true for everything. Everything.
Mera Qatil
Mere qatil k qadmo k nishan ko pehan kar
meri khanjar ka pata maloom karna ha muje
Kya mera qatil sharf rakhta ha khoon rezi ka?
Ya mehaz roh-e-doshiiza hai jo ulte qadam firta ha
Mashriq chahey magrib, nazrein toh jamii muj pe thi
Uss ka khanjar-e-poshida na sahi ankh-e-siyah mashqooq na thi?
Ya vo ik chaandh tha jo chala beech sehra-e-khuab-e-shikasta
Kya magar chaandh ko nazar aata bastiy-e-tareekh ma tamashayi ullu
– Adil Hussain
The water walker
He wasn’t Christ yet
Who straggled behind his pals on the mountain
to watch the sunset alone,
singing under his breath as he went:
Φῶς ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου,
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ·
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν,
τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ. 1
“O thou of little faith,” he thought he would say
But his mind had only reached the word ‘oracle’.
“Wherefore didst thou leave?” they inquired.
“The sun didn’t set” – now that was way immense
than the mundane “it was shut away by the clouds.”
He scampered on that fluffy snow and his pace was slow;
He saw his friends and had a distant epiphany
upon seeing them see a man walk on desiccated water.
“O you men of little adventure,”2 he said his line for he knew he would,
“take the hand of the living oracle and walk
on the stormy sea’s white foam.”
The friends all cheered and exclaimed,
“Thou art a rascal indeed!”
And Peter sang and John sang
Munching on the loaf he offered
while with banters Dunbar filled his sheets.
Adil
1 Seikilos epitaph
2 See Matthew 14:22-33
Thou shalt spit
So the angel-man in his white robe spits in his direction. Some spit falls onto his white beard and dangles as honey to a honey dipper. Do not, o stupid man, be taken into the sweetness of this illustration. The boy ponders whether the beard acts as the four fingers since the spit was like the finger that pointed him out.
A ‘real/true’ friend
That’s a misnomer for starters… What is a real friend? I don’t demand that. What is real? When we were using the term real, we must have been referring to ideal in reality (pun or whatever)… That’s like being Mrs. Malaprop.
In reality, a friend is one who cheats exactly when you’re in need of one. He cheats indeed.
The Bare Witch (Tituba)
I’m a witch– not a wizard, mind you. I’m not a witch by choice, but by force (although I chose to be called a witchcake maker). I have already started to contradict myself; what else do you expect of a woman believed to be a witch and already just a few steps away from the gallows?
I have chosen to confess and be guilty about things I have no hope of doing. That way I can stop being one of my Sarah-victims. I have knowledge of criminal deeds and can stop that practice– what more does a deaf, blind christ demand?
Which one, pardon?
I’m starting to believe that it’s better to get in record books for publication of a book within a month. Of course, I’m being sarcastic. But then I’m sarcastic about everything. I hear the bird sing and if it is able to replace me, it croaks! I’ve heard someone say this is the trait of a rebel. And that such rebels are not born every year.
The creation of a character
and the book– sounds easy? Nevermind! Just help me out if you could. On my podcast I discuss naively how I am in the midst of a ‘lock’ where I have to choose between things that are really not so simple as a binary opposition. Give it a listen: https://anchor.fm/litch/episodes/Creation-of-the-Book—the-Love-Twist-edc64b
I launch a podcast
You may follow my rambling writing here https://anchor.fm/litch or just get the hang of what writing might mean.
Things Adil Writes 