Lockdown Diaries: Haiku tribute to COVID-19 patients captures solitude of isolation

As the country continues to be under the dark shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Shahnaz penned down a collection of Japanese Haiku that reflect the moments of those COVID-19 patients who were confined and could not be with their family. Her poem is a tribute to their lives and also a beautiful reminder for those left behind. 

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I will never know
How you felt
How your face broke into tears
How you keep looking out of the window
I will never know

My nights and days
are only about you
I can't see anything, anymore
This evening will be sad
They will declare me a body

My body burning
the fever has reached my soul
but I am burning for you
dear one
You so cool and fragrant like the jasmine you grow

You would be on your prayer mat
Sobbing
Frightened
Lonely
I have to surrender, sweetheart
Death is here

I am no longer warm
I need you
Don't wait outside
It is here
that my life is turning
cold

Why did it have to be this way
The walls are closing in
No time left, dear one
to breathe in your arms

She is old
and forgets things
she will look for me
Don't tell her I am gone
Forever
she might die.

My heart
beating madly in my chest
Like the wind
on the window pane
There is nobody here
Now everything has stopped.
Now I see you at the window, take me.

I will disappear into the universe
You remember
How I told you , once
See, this is the body
I am not there

Solitary
I am taking the last breath of air into my lungs
The last whiff of the world
My life
Our life
Could dying be that easy

There is no one here
distant Azaan in the breeze
I have no strength for a prayer
Just a desire
to bury my face in your breast

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Dr. Shahnaz is a guest faculty in IIT, Delhi, and had also taught English and Sign language in JNU. Her anthology of poems and sketches have been published.

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