Souvenirs

Laputan mouth
of blood-bathed sand crystals
   reverberant echoes of Takbir*
a palimpsest of Passions
   & time
a relic of Ashura*
   an unseen, unheard,
yet perceptible melancholy
I swim into the tactility
   of lactoderm-tender head
as grass, of cardboard-stiff horns
as trunks of trees – I swim 
   like a dead moth in the tactility 
of this forest with petrichor
   of sacrificial tears
that evanesce, that coalesce
into the congealed blood
   creeping into the blood-gutters
of his guillotine knife
for the innocent's sacrifice
   congealed blood came
   congealed blood went
the Feast of Sacrifice* awaits us like
a bittersweet chocolate in the fridge 
    firming up before it's relished
    reminiscing its birth and death

Souvenirs

* Takbir – the name of an Arabic phrase, Allah-o-Akbar, which means 'Allah is the Greatest.'

* Ashura – a melancholic event for Muslims observed on the 10th of Muharram, according to the Islamic calendar, commemorating the heart-wrenching martyrdom of the two grandsons of the Holy Prophet (PBUH): Hazrat Hussain (A.S.), and Hazrat Hassan (A.S.).

* Feast of Sacrifice/Eid-ul-Azha – one of the two Eids celebrated by Muslims as it marks the climax of Hajj, observed on the 10th of Zil Hajj (according to Islamic calendar). On this day, Muslims sacrifice Halal cattle commemorating the event when the prophet Hazrat Ibrahim's (A.S.) faith was put to test by Allah (S.W.T.) by commanding him (A.S.) to sacrifice his dearest thing, and he was ready to sacrifice his son for the sake of Allah, so Allah had mercy on him, and rewarded him by replacing his son with a ram under the blade of his knife.