a ghazal in english

rain is a step away from pain in english
look, i have lost my thoughts again in english

through the soft air of that last poetry class
she asked me to write a refrain in english

i would write this ghazal in my mother’s tongue
but my hands have only been trained in english

chutney pyjama jungle aur nirvana
look! there are looted words contained in english

you can’t be successful without angrezi
colonialism has us stained in english

punjabi tastes like ਗੁੜ* melting in my mouth
there are things i cannot explain in english

but this language can be less of a whitewash
jasmine do more than just complain in english

[*gur = jaggery] Jasmine