To Junaid by Joie Bose

Joie Bose is a corporate professional in the ITES industry, a former professor of Jadavpur University. She is the India Community Leader of The WIT Network. She has won Bharat Nirman Award for Literature, Nissim International Prize for Poetry, Women par Excellence Award for Literature amongst others. She has authored Corazon Roto and Sixty Nine Other Treasons (2015) and Amour (2020). She is the General Secretary of Poetry Paradigm and Mrs. India (East) 2018.

To Junaid

Junaid my child, did you know when you were kicking in your mothers tummy

that you would have to thank Allah everyday

or that you would like beef kebabs? 

That on Diwali the night sky is filled with fire stars 

and that Ganesha and Lakshmi come with blessings?

I didn't either, I didn't either, I didn't either! 

Junaid my brother, a child in the mother 

has no religion

as a corpse won't either 

were a human to die in a jungle 

and become fodder for animals

more fierce than it,

but humans are not human anymore

and I wish we were both again in our mother,

Again in our mothers. 

Junaid my brother, my tears are not Hindu, and your cry was not Muslim

Your soul is not Muslim, and my pain is not Hindu

Just our faiths were, just our faiths were, just our faiths were;

And how bloody all faith feels now 

now that your blood stains it, 

now that the guilt of a million stains it,

now that, now that you're a name being echoed 

and your bones lie cold beneath the earth, you lie cold beneath the earth.

Damn this bloody faith! Damn this bloody faith! 

Junaid my love, I have no words to offer

Only a cry, only a cry of a million...