“Postcard from Kashmir”

 

Kashmir shrinks into my mailbox,

my home a neat four by six inches

 

I always loved neatness. Now I hold

the half-inch Himalayas in my hand.

 

This is home. And this is the closest

I’ll ever be to home. When I return,

the colors won’t be so brilliant,

the Jhelum’s waters so clean,

so ultramarine. My love

so overexposed.

 

And my memory will be a little

out of focus, in it

a giant negative, black

and white, still undeveloped.

 

(for Pavan Sahgal)

Ali, Agha Shahid. The Half-inch Himalayas. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 1987. Print.

via Shahid s Half Inch Himalayas Lastupdate:- Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:30:00 GMT GreaterKashmir.com.