Queer Verse: Two poets introspect on love, loss, and identity

The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down portions of the draconian Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code has heralded a new age in India; one where the LGBTQI community is one step further in the fight for equal rights. It marks the start of more large-scale changes in education, employment and marriage, as well as bringing to an end the wide-scale discrimination that queer people face. Literature has been at the heart of the LGBTQI movement, whether as a form of protest or simply a means to express that which society deems unacceptable. Aditi Angiras and Akhil Katyal, editors of an upcoming anthology of queer poetry from South Asia, share some of their work written over the years, which explores love, identity, and language, among other themes. Art by Namaah K *** My Mad Girl’s Love Song there are days when i really miss you, sylvia nights like these i wonder, what if things were different that one night and you had met me at that party. 1956, february 25. between the jazz and poems and drinking whiskey and ginger wine walking on air, like a holy high you’d stumble and step on my toes so we’d end up dancing all night you’d quote me my poems and i’d court you, more poems where you’d not need to be you confused, inebriated and i’d not need to be hughes to be huge with the ladies “I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed (oh sylvia) And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.” head in the clouds, you’d got me singing “oh na na, what’s my name?” now that we’re sober, tell me dear sylvia, would you still die with your head in the oven or, stay, six years later, to hold my hand at the stonewall riots? Say, won’t you write me a poem to tell me we’re real, alive not dead loving like fuckers, fucking like lovers so i’d stop feeling that …. (I think I made you up inside my head.) — Aditi Angiras   Dilruba: A Ghazal I must have been nine when I first saw Dilruba, the show ‘Shrimaan Shrimati’, year 1994. Dilruba, who loved his neighbour’s wife, quite inexplicably, ‘coz the joke was the limp-wristed, see-saw Dilruba. In one episode they said he was born on 6:6:1966, such a ‘Chakka’, the whole room was like “Haw Dilruba!” The worst is I remember I found it funny, I laughed and yet felt a dread that took years to thaw, Dilruba. Each morning, the school ground was fifty yards of fear, a senior had yelled, “Hey,” as if finding a flaw, “Dilruba!” And yet they named him ’that which ravishes the heart,’ this was also his meaning, Akhil, just that you never saw Dilruba. — Akhil Katyal [imgcenter]

[/imgcenter]​   Gender Trouble when the girl kisses the ugly frog it turns into a charming prince but in my fairy tale i think i swallowed mine like a pill now it beats me like an angry heart on the days it wants to get out — Aditi Angiras   *** In the Urdu Class I confused my be with pe. He asked me to write ‘water’, I wrote ‘you’. Who knew they’d make them so close, Aab (آب) and Aap (آپ). Both difficult to hold on to. — Akhil Katyal   [imgcenter]

[/imgcenter]​ I Will Meet You Again translated from Amrita Pritam’s Punjabi poem ‘Main Tenu Phir Milangi’ by Akhil Katyal Main Tenu Fir Milaan Gi Kithey? Kis Tarah? Pata Nai Shayad Terey Takhayul Di Chinag Ban Ke Terey Canvas Tey Utraan Gi Ya Khowrey Terey Canvas Dey Utey Ikk Rahasmayi Lakeer Ban Ke Khamosh Tenu Tak Di Rawaan Gi I will meet you again Where? How? I do not know - maybe as a bit in your imagination I will come to your canvas or like a cryptic line you draw, silently, keep gazing at you. Yaa Khowrey Sooraj Di Loo Ban Ke Terey Rangaan Wich Ghulaan Gi Yaa Rangaan Diyan Bahwaan Wich Baith Ke Terey Canvas Nuu Walaan Gi Pata Nai Kiss Tarah? Kithey? Par Tenu Zaroor Milaan Gi Or like the ray of the sun I will mix in your colours, and sitting in their arms, become that which you draw. I do not know how or where but I will meet you again. Yaa Khowrey Ikk Chashma Bani Howaan Gi Tey Jeevan Jharneyaan Da Paani Udd-da Main Paani Diyaan Boondaan Terey Pindey Tey Malaan Gi Tey Ikk Thandak Jahi Ban Ke Teri Chaati Dey Naal Lagaan Gi Main Hor Kujh Nai Jaandi Par Aena Jaandi Ke Waqt Jo Vii Karey Ga Aey Janam Mairey Naal Turey Ga Maybe I will be a spring and like water, fly to the wind - those droplets of water, I will rub on your body, and like a coolness, I will lie on your chest. I don’t know much but this I know, in time, when I go, all I have done will go and when this body goes everything goes, but the threads of memories are like the atoms in the universe, I will cherry-pick those atoms, weave those threads and I will meet you again. Aey Jism Mukda Hai Tay Sab Kujh Muk Jaanda Par Chaityaan Dey Dhaagey Kaainaati Kana Dey Hundey Main Onhaan Kana Nuu Chunaan Gi Dhaageyaan Nuu Walaan Gi Tey Tenu Main Fair Milaan Gi.