Mumbai, I Bequeath My Death

Aaj ki raat bahut garam hawa chalti hai
Aaj ki raat na neend aayegi - Kaifi Aazmi

Tonight a very hot wind is blowing
Tonight I won't be able to sleep - Kaifi Aazmi

I bequeath my death to the beggar who died outside the Leopold Café
They shot him and his past; his coins fell from his present
They shot my past too at the narrow street next to it
Where I had once kissed a girl in a fevered evening
And dared again in a night of untoward violence

I bequeath my death to the fireflies at queen's necklace
That never arrived that day
And to the single Kalashnikov bullet
That stared shamelessly at me
From a footprint in the dark

I bequeath my death to many a death
Many a hurt
And the sky that bled
In a single shroud, a single season,
A single word

I bequeath my death to Mumbai poets
Kaifi Aazmi, Arun Kolatkar and many others
And those who died in their end thoughts
They died again and again
With me on that day.