Bollywood Confabulation
(a collage poem of famous lines translated from
Bollywood movies: Pakeezah, Sholay, Mughal-e-
Azam, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, and Kabhi Kabhi)
Look at your feet, so beautiful. Do
not step on the ground, filth will smear them;
your future will fill with pricks. He with a
fearful heart, understand dead. Death will dance
on your head — lift your eyes and see. I am
its servant, thirsty from birth; you my jewels
my raiments. I redden my part, adorn
myself for my beloved, terrified
of evil-eye so with black kohl I streak
my waterline. Petals shrivel but thorns
keep sharp. Love brings ruin and ruins lives.
Your lips’ tremor is morning; when you let
loose your tresses, midnight. What place has fear
if a bloom’s barbs do not dread withering?
Rajiv Mohabir, "Bollywood Confabulation" from Cultish. Copyright © 2021 by Rajiv Mohabir. Reprinted by permission of Four Way Books, www.fourwaybooks.com.
