Last Goodbye in Bahawalpur

Last Goodbye in Bahawalpur

Photo by ibrar.kunri / Shutterstock.com This is where it was leading to: this quiet sunset sky, this beech & the bench underneath. Funny how you held my hand at the time of leaving it. Funny how I let you. All our favorite restaurants have discontinued. So much of...
Devi invades the indigenous flora of Karachi

Devi invades the indigenous flora of Karachi

Photo by ibrar.kunri / Shutterstock.com “lord, i worry / that love is violence.”                                       —Jose Olivarez Love shows itself again while I’m in traffic. Words like خم & زلف& سنبلare not only beautiful again,but near. I can actually...
Cocktails & Dreams, Baga, Goa

Cocktails & Dreams, Baga, Goa

Photo by Alexanderphoto7 / Shutterstock.com quantum of pepper in a Bloody Mary so perfectequates tipsy to happyrolling down my throatin jeeps of pinwheel candyseducing stomachyou Sir be a fine mess belly blushing a baby’s pinkmy frame a door to seaweed pleasure to...
Not a Single Joyous Thing to Be Found

Not a Single Joyous Thing to Be Found

Photo by lit3rd / Shutterstock.com If I were an alcoholic in Japan, I would be very good at hiding it. The way I would be very good at hiding everything: my panic attacks, my tattoos, my scars. No one would ever see me cry. Let’s get some vodka, I’d say to my Japanese...
Jharokha

Jharokha

Wrapped in the fabric of my pink dupatta, Begum Bazaar is the fabled navel in the eye of antiquity. The streets stomach quaintness mutely, like measured gulps of Irani chai. We walk on, moving in a soft-haze of sounds and colors. You propose a game of make-believe. We...
Ledra Street

Ledra Street

Photo: “The Green Line in Nicosia (Cyprus)” by Marco Fieber is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 I would like to tell you about the kafenion, about the cat that lived there, and the cheese rinds I fed it. About the coffee-shop owner who was hit by a car, and the...