i tangle dreams within dreams

spinning entire runways like cotton through a charkha
               “journeys end in lovers meeting” or so i hear
i traverse entire landscapes with the gentle

       छम छम of my paayal breezing through the wind;

               this is not your village, not my city

                       but somewhere in between
                       suspended in this limbo of here and there

                       i try to punctuate the journey between यहाँ and वहाँ

               from the liminal spaces of airport gates; where one life ends and

another begins—i am here, there, everywhere, and achingly nowhere
i think of how my friend likes Turkish tea

as i gargle down precooked airplane meals

               // from through the looking glass of a layover

               i see day break in istanbul

                       /// i long for my mother’s pav bhaji and chai
               somewhere, my neighbour’s cat plays with a toy i bought for her /

               my lover checks anxiously for arrival times // my father must have left for his walk

               my sister must be getting ready for class /// my dog could have had a seizure

all my relations, dislocated from myself — defined by their relationship with

                                               Greenwich Meridian Time
i spin dreams within dreams

and wish i could weave together the ones i love

               like a piece of فلسطیني tatreez;

                       i do not want to miss you all forever

                       i cannot miss you all forever