Akif Kichloo
Secretly I Am a Mathematician
(I)
Secretly I am a saint.
I fuck but never procreate.
Subtraction > Addition
When I was a child I found the trick to multiplication
9 x 1 = 10 - 1
9 x 2 = 20 - 2
9 x 3 = 30 - 3
you see how subtraction is an easier pursuit.
(II)
When I started learning the Urdu alphabet alif bay pay tay (ت پ ب ا )
I always forgot to recall the letter پ (pay).
My father thrashed me so hard I screamed
alif bay pay tay, alif bay pay tay, alif bay pay tay, for weeks in my sleep.
Like a split heartbeat. A sound of disease. alif bay pay tay, alif bay pay tay, alif bay pay tay.
Years later I learnt the letter پ (pay) is absent in the Arabic language.
(if you have to write Pepsi in Arabic you write Bebsi instead.)
You see Absence Effortless to learn
Subtraction Easier
(III)
Easy is سهل (Sahal) in Arabic, Urdu, and Kashmiri
Which becomes آسان (Aasaan) in Persian and Hindi (आसान)
Which becomes (Ãsãna) in Punjabi and again اسانه (Ãsãna) in Pashto.
All seven languages my ancestors spoke at some point until
I subtracted them down to just one.
(IV)
Sick men are hung to
death because it is said that death
by hanging is death by humiliation.
Every time a man is hung by his neck, his manhood swells to an erection.
During partition so many men were hung, all anyone ever saw
was floods. Do these look like additions?
Millions of faces that never aged subtraction
So many children growing up without fathers subtraction
My father slapping me senseless unrelated but still subtraction.
(V)
In our house there was a tradition
Children behaved like grownups and grownups behaved like children.
There is no way to remember how I felt the day I was born
but I cannot forget the day I couldn’t place the letter پ (pay) that day I ripened.
Secretly I am a saint.
I fuck but never procreate.
Subtraction > Addition
When I was a child I found the trick to multiplication
9 x 1 = 10 - 1
9 x 2 = 20 - 2
9 x 3 = 30 - 3
you see how subtraction is an easier pursuit.
(II)
When I started learning the Urdu alphabet alif bay pay tay (ت پ ب ا )
I always forgot to recall the letter پ (pay).
My father thrashed me so hard I screamed
alif bay pay tay, alif bay pay tay, alif bay pay tay, for weeks in my sleep.
Like a split heartbeat. A sound of disease. alif bay pay tay, alif bay pay tay, alif bay pay tay.
Years later I learnt the letter پ (pay) is absent in the Arabic language.
(if you have to write Pepsi in Arabic you write Bebsi instead.)
You see Absence Effortless to learn
Subtraction Easier
(III)
Easy is سهل (Sahal) in Arabic, Urdu, and Kashmiri
Which becomes آسان (Aasaan) in Persian and Hindi (आसान)
Which becomes (Ãsãna) in Punjabi and again اسانه (Ãsãna) in Pashto.
All seven languages my ancestors spoke at some point until
I subtracted them down to just one.
(IV)
Sick men are hung to
death because it is said that death
by hanging is death by humiliation.
Every time a man is hung by his neck, his manhood swells to an erection.
During partition so many men were hung, all anyone ever saw
was floods. Do these look like additions?
Millions of faces that never aged subtraction
So many children growing up without fathers subtraction
My father slapping me senseless unrelated but still subtraction.
(V)
In our house there was a tradition
Children behaved like grownups and grownups behaved like children.
There is no way to remember how I felt the day I was born
but I cannot forget the day I couldn’t place the letter پ (pay) that day I ripened.
Biography
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Akif Kichloo is a poet of Indian origin currently alternating residence between Saginaw, Michigan (USA) and Kashmir, J & K (India). With a bachelor's degree in Medicine and Surgery, he has been eating shoelaces for the past year because he gave up everything to write poetry. Currently signed with Andrews Mcmeel Publishing for his book of poems Falling Through Love (November, 2019)
Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Tumblr/Pinterest : @akifkichloo http://akifkichloo.com/ |
