Niilofur Farrukh
The following poem first appeared in The Aleph Review, Vol. 5 (2021) and is being published on the website as part of Dr Javaria Farooqui's digital curation (July, 2022).
Should it be quantified in racing moments
or stilled in the timelessness of memory?
Birthing… parenting…
tending to bruises of body and heart
of the young ones
with a tenderness you never knew of
What does ‘lived happily ever after’ mean in a lifetime
Stepping into the unknown loneliness
of the empty nest
to find you have transitioned
back… once more a couple.
Connecting with the serenity in each other
Stepping on waves, dodging the undertow in unison.
Letting the weight of a tropical monsoon
come crashing down with abandonment.
Walking a mountain trail of seamless green
on the edge of snow.
Stargazing on a dune, afar from the city
What does ‘lived happily ever after’ mean in a lifetime
Agreeing to disagree…
anger losing its edge with caring…
understanding differences…
learning forgiveness
Finding that a red rose expresses
love and regret with the same intensity
What does ‘lived happily ever after’ mean in a lifetime
Burying parents and siblings
Knowing bewildering pain, slow healing,
the foreverness of a grieving corner in the heart.
The thought creeping in
that we will lose each other one day
What does ‘lived happily ever after’ mean in a lifetime
Your grave where I sit by you, can never be cold nor dark.
It is the place where you rest
knowing the warmth of our togetherness
the ‘lived happily ever after’ of a lifetime
Niilofur Farrukh’s poems, in contrast to her critical writings on art, come from a deeply emotional space and her recent work was triggered by grief. The poetic journey that started in the 1970s was powered by defiance and her work was a part of recitals and anthologies of that decade. After a very long hiatus, poetry just returned, like a friend that wanted to share her loss, and stayed, spurred by the uncertainty of the Covid pandemic. Niilofur has three books on issues connected to art and society to her credit and was the founding editor of NuktaArt. Currently she heads the Karachi Biennale.
About the featured artist: Rabia Farooqui is a Karachi-based visual artist. She received her BFA from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (Karachi) majoring in miniature painting, and has taken part in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally. Rabia represented Pakistan at the Green Olive Art Residency in Morocco. She participated in another art residency, Zaratan Arte Contemporanea in Lisbon, Portugal and was nominated for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2020.