ABOUT THE POEM: "Noorie" is a bittersweet and resigned anti-love poem addressed to an idealized figure, acknowledging the certainty that she will never be the narrator's own. Using tender, culinary metaphors ("Gulab Jamun," "Kaju Katli"), the poem contrasts this romantic ideal with the narrator's lack of luck and bitter, streetwise experience. The speaker ultimately asserts his control by declaring that he will now be the one to define her beauty, recognizing that true ugliness resides not in appearance, but in hidden, negative intention.Miss Gulab Jamun of Mughal Garden,
My Kaju Katli from cloud nine,
Sparkling Sprite – Turkish delight,
This isn’t a child’s world where desires
Melt away like a Sunday.
You’ll never be mine.
We’ll both learn that, someday.
What happened has shaped me
As much as what never did.
I’ve had no luck with women;
I wasn’t born half an hour ago-
Had I been, you’d still miss the sarcasm
When I say I know nothing
Of love, or of orgasm.
Yes, I am still in search of beauty.
But this time,
I’ll be the one to decide
If you are beautiful.
For ugliness hides in intention,
As beauty shines through
The beholder’s eyes.
My cotton candy, my sugar syrup,
My honey, my love –
We’ve never met, and still
I’m guilty of being me.
I know how the heart wanders,
How it aches when love gives nothing back
Even after complete surrender.
I will not trouble deaf heaven with prayers,
Nor bear the noisy hell of your absence.
I’m not calling names-
I just know the pattern.
