Alive

किस बात का गम है
किस बात की है ख़ुशी
क्यूँ आज आँखें नम है
और होंठों पे है हँसी

किसका इज़हार करते हैं
क्या है जो छुपाते हैं
कौनसा सच हैं
और किसको सच समझ जाते हैं

ऐसा मातम क्यूँ है
किसके जनाज़े पर गए हैं सभी
साँस शायद रुख़ गयीं है
पर ज़िंदा हूँ में अभी

Forest lives, grass dies

How real is the world

How real is the dream

Is it the one I heard

Or is it the one I have seen

Which one do I believe,

What I see or what is shown?

In my mind the forest grows

New seeds each day is sown

The weeds are as much the forest

As much are the flowers and trees

crawlers, grazers and big cats on prowl

And the mammoth, birds and the tiny bees

One is eaten and the other survives

In the jungle the strife is perpetually on

Stealthy paws and nervous hooves spar

grass gets trampled by both, forest lives on

In this melee I wonder

Where does the truth rest

How dead is the grass?

How alive is the forest?