I don’t know which way the wind is blowing

I march to the beat of my own drum

If l want to know where I’m going

I look back to where I came from

I look into your eyes and see
A shimmer of that side of me
That beauty is truth, truth beauty
That’s all we need to know and all we need to be

I’m Looking for my past selves
Sleeping with my old self
I am just a shadow of my wild me
I can’t remember what that was like to be
I look into your eyes and see
A shimmer of that side of me
Through the sandglass and into the sea
I’m waiting for the waves to bring myself back to me – Nausher

 

the verdict is in, you’ve sinned with skin
my brother, my siamese, my twin
my better half, my other side
my friend, philosopher, and guide
What’s left behind we do not know
It’s the way the story goes
Here today, gone tomorrow
We all live here on time borrowed

It draws their gaze across placid curves
Do they thirst for a sip of fire
The heart beats hollow in mind caves
Tribal moans in primal pyres

Bated breath baited eyes 
Are we willing to wait for stillness
The perfume of cinnamon on your sighs
Surrounds our stones and our senses

In a ghostly haze that sets us free
We search what we carefully conceal
I wonder if we are aware
Of the shadows and light that haunt us there

We watch the beauty of the bare
The empty walls we cannot share
You walk with me in black and white
With velvet coat in velvet night

Through impervious apathy
And slavish parables of duty
Let us breathe even for a moment
At the edge of earth the skin of infinity –

– Nausher Nash

The house on the rock, the writing on the wall

Give me back my secrets before I fall

Inside of me, in spite of me

I have the key, I have the key

It doesn’t matter how you persist

If it is not in frame it doesn’t exist –

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Beauty makes a heaven of hell, there was a time it knew me well

Walls don’t work, you always say, but open the doors anyway

I can stand, I can fall, it’s my choice to fly or crawl

What I love and what I hate are the hands that guide my fate – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I shoot arrows into the air,
They fall on earth, I know not where,
But sometimes they touch a heart,
And that is a beautiful, and that’s a start

Water on the shore, fate at my door
I dont care anymore if I’m a prince or a whore
The Savonarolas of the world have been at it for centuries
Burning down beauty in a bonfire of the vanities
Praising the ugly and questioning our sanity
In the name of love everything is profanity
I shoot and I write – That’s what takes me through the night
I have beauty on my brain like you probably have money, god and fame
Let Savonarola come and burn it all down
My finger is on the shutter and I still wear the crown

When I see the rabid, virtue signalling pc mob on social media
I’m reminded of all the other times they frothed their hysteria
Here they come with pitchforks and pamphlets
Spitting out commandments from their broken tablets
I can smell the rancid sweat of their hate and ignorance,
Their bad breath and their bad opinions
I’m seeing their posts, gnarled, plastic and empty
Their faces oozing ugliness, wearing masks to hide the ugly
Out of their septic holes they hiss and they spew
Box cars to ‘protection camps’ – they are the first in que
-Nausher Nash

In the end it is all just a speck in my eye
I just want to take a moment to say goodbye
I know I made a mistake coming here again
Can I remind myself of what, where and when
In a dream and a prophecy, barely a trace of that place in me
I look in the mirror and all I see, the ebb and flow of memory – NausherNash

This is my temple
And I am it’s priest
This is my religion
And I am it’s prophet
This is my world
And I am it’s god
The night is done
Gone with the wind of the first sun
Dreams on ice
Crucified twice
I want to be alone with me
A transparent layer in history
You ask if I’m religious and this is what I say
I kneel to the naked and to beauty I pray
I see the winding vines of history
Splattered with blood and blame
And every decision ever made
Has vanity in its name

-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Come, let’s play Armchair Jesus

Saving the world online

One Facebook post at a time

Playing victim and saviour in turn

While our own house burns

We tear down our culture and what have we built

We’ve unlearned our history with flag-waving guilt

We just need clicks on our posts to feel fulfilled-

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

If you are going to die anyway, you might as well die with memories of love, lust and desire

Your body may have failed but your heart is still on fire

There is something about nudity, and the cross, that takes me higher

Kissing you kissing me

The ebb and flow of the sheltering sea

Somewhere between here and why

The truth and lie of my alibi

 

Open your doors to what might be

The ebb and flow of the sheltering sea

Somewhere between where and why

The lost empire of the firefly

 

Feel beauty and you are free

The ebb and flow of the sheltering sea

Somewhere between how and why

The prophecy of the magpie –

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Don’t play victim Don’t play saviour

We are bored with your behaviour

We are bored with all the flag-waving guilt

You tear down culture but what have you yourself built

You are just a creature who needs clicks to feel fulfilled – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

with every season and every passing year

we spend less and less time facing a mirror

we cross the bridge but not the river

until we can’t recognize the face in the picture – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I see you like this

naked on the veranda of an Italian villa

looking down at a throbbing mob of lovers

a cigarette in one hand, regret in the other

watching their yearning with your cold dark eyes

watching them burning, hearing their sighs

you see the swell of the surging crowd

you hear them chant your name aloud

enchantment in one hand, in the other hand a shroud

You ask me if I’m religious and this is what I say

I kneel to the naked and to beauty I pray

I can see the winding vines of history
Splattered with blood and blame
And every decision that was made
Had vanity in its name

 

 

 

When I look at you I see sand whispering in the hourglass

I see the colour in your eyes change as the hours pass

Beauty – there was a time it knew me

Changing turning I could never find the key

And our days fly by like fireflies into the sea

I’m happy not to survive to see the decay of your beauty

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Don’t flatter yourself darling, it’s not to be

Don’t go confusing youth for beauty

Dont mistake the tautness of skin with the angles of bone

When you face the mirror you stand alone

Everything is not equal, and everyone is not the same

I know everything there is to know about the blame game

Time changes everything in a film running backwards

You keep moving your goalposts and shifting your standards

The beginning is the end but not everything ends well

You will find hell in heaven and heaven in hell

They may mock you and jeer and you might scoff

You have reached the edge of earth my darling

And are in danger of falling off

our painted armies are soaked with youth and defiance

our naked bodies are cloaked with truth and silence

I sit and await the hand of fate
Walk the street to my own heartbeat
Love and hate are an open gate
I feel the heat beneath her feet

 

I can’t even remember what i came here to get away from

My mind is churning but my face is calm

We move to the symphony of lust

Until ashes turn to ashes and dust to dust

I’ve been standing watching the light fading
Watching the day passing and the night returning
Standing, watching the mirrors pretending
Losing beauty, watching my life turning
Burning, watching my past erasing
Unbeing, unseeing what i’m seeing
Even as the mirrors are breaking – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I’m walking down my night mind

Searching for what is mine

Looking into my rearview mirror

Searching for what I’m searching for

I have been running down passages

But all I see is the empty spaces

Did I see a shadow stir

I’m still waiting for an answer

Through the sandglass and into the sea

I’m waiting for the waves to bring myself back to me

– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Why this, why that, and why
Turn a blind eye, and say goodbye
in your dreams you can hear your laughter
You can hear your screams the morning after

Why this, why that, and why
Look up at the sky and wait for the lie
You loose your way walking down the track
Nothing to say, ricochet those dead years back

Why this, why that, and why
You wish you could fly, a pie in the sky
Counting your chances, a thousand to one,
Hand on your heart, eyes on the eclipsed sun

Why this, why that, and why
Raise your hands up high, on your lips feel a sigh
You go down on your knees
Open your heart to the moon and the chilling breeze

Why this, why that, and why
Look up at the sky and wait for the lie
White grows gray, gray glows black
Nothing to say, ricochet those dead years back

Why this, why that, and why
Looking up the hill at the pie in the sky
Counting your chances, a thousand to one,
An ear on your heart, eyes on an eclipsed sun

 

You go down on your knee
Open your heart to the moon and the bottomless sea
Look up at to the sky and sigh
Why this, why that, and why

White grows gray, gray glows black
Nothing to say, ricochet those dead years back
Look up at the sky and lie
Why this, why that, and why

Count your chances, a thousand to one,
An ear on your heart, eyes on an eclipsed sun

Look up high at the pie in the sky

Why this, why that, and why

– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

 

 

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in
Watch me pass through heaven’s gate
I can’t remember where I have been
I’m sorry darling it’s been so late

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in
See the power of beauty one last time
All the fairy tales were wrong in the end
They made ugliness a virtue and beauty a crime

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in
Those truths are gone those lies were a game
Your sins are a gift your virtues forgiven
You learnt praise and blame are all the same – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in

When i pass through heaven’s gate

I can’t remember where I have been

I’m sorry darling it’s been so late

 

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in

See that power of beauty one last time

All the fairy tales were wrong in the end

They made ugliness a virtue and beauty a crime

 

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in

Those truths are gone those lies were a game

But tonight those distant stars are shining bright again

You learnt that praise and blame are all the same – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

The bellows are burned

The ire is consumed in the fire

Nothing is learned

You leave the ones you desire

The finger points to you but that is nothing new

The gods that created thunder and rain also created you

Provoke yourself with a myriad of mirrored faces

Trace the scars back to all those hidden places

You see yourself sitting naked on the sand

A promise and a prophecy in each hand

You mirror a mirage moving alone

You call out but it is gone

A ripple of gasps from behind a curtain

You part them only to enter oblivion

Mirror mirror on the wall
What do we see before we fall
The poetry of memories and lust
Ashes to ashes dust to dust
We stumble between the blur and the after
We leave behind our breath on the mirror
The power of beauty
The beauty of power
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Spend enough time in libraries and you find
 that everything is related, everything is connected
Christ and crutches
Guilt and guillotines
Penises and propaganda
Erotica and enlightenment
Climate and constipation
Martyrs and masturbation

Woke and broke

Ignorance about the past leads to arrogance about the future

Maybe a mirror will garner the truth better

The truth is time changes everything

In a film running backwards

Where a beginning is the end

But not everything ends well

Dream meets poetry

Words are the clay of history

You have reached the edge of the earth

And you are in danger of falling off

Out of the bubble and into the sea

Lemmings off the cliff who think they are free

Burnt at the stake for everyone else’s mistake

Constipated guilt as you march to save civilization

This relish to swim in this fetid sewer of self-flagellation. – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Between rapture and ecstasy

Your gaze feels like summer to me

In the depths of your eyes the question lies

And for those who look so far

also lies the answer

We are just peasants floundering in the snow

What colour is the wind we do not know

Between rapture and ecstasy

Everything seems like summer to me

And everything seems like fall

It matters more than you will ever see

And it matters nothing at all

My god is beautiful, strong, and naked

I kneel at Her sculpted alter

And worship at Her renaissance feet

And when the music stops and the mirror shatters

She reminds me why beauty matters.

– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I was standing watching worlds falling
I could hear words colliding
Beauty speaking through your eyes
Through the pores of your skin
Speaking truth to lies
Your sins are a gift
Your virtues are forgiven

Everything always seems like summer to me.
And everything seems like fall
It matters more than you think
And it doesn’t matter at all – N

You preach love but you justify hate
Feelings are facts and words are bait
Flagellate yourself with guilt and demand reparations
You are the saviour you say of desperate nations
You talk about one world but are blind to all others
There is comfort among sheep when others are ogres
You say it is a debate but you argue with labels
Best blur the lines between facts and fables
You see truths as opinions, and opinions as slurs
You are falling over like lemmings to out-woke your brothers
You choose Barabbas to go free and burn Joan at the stake
You stone the Semites as they kneel and call history a fake
Your kindness is your shield, being offended is your sword
Tell me who died and anointed you god
All the simple truths are false and all the complex ones are unusable.
When everyone is saving the world you are disposable
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

You worship your celluloid puppets
Your sports shows, your stereo heroes
I must atone for everything I have known
I just worship the beauty of skin
The beauty of stone

You worship your intoxications
Your bundles of green, your what-might-have-beens
I must atone for everything I have known
I just worship the beauty of skin
The beauty of stone

You worship your TV noose
Your games of win or loose
I must atone for everything I have known
I just worship the beauty of skin
The beauty of stone – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Now put on your mask

And let the show begin

Your sins are a gift

Your virtues are forgiven

You dance with an angel, walk with a ghost

All versions of you end at the goalpost

Is it the sound of a shutter, the drum of a heart beat

Is it heaven above or the ground beneath her feet – Nausher

You are standing on the crosswalk

Listening to the crosstalk

Waiting to catch up with your past

And your future just passed

You catch your reflection

Kissing your assassin

Waiting to catch up with your past

And your future just passed

You scatter pictures on the floor

Your beauty walks out the door

Waiting to catch up with your past

And your future just passed

 

 

 

 

 

You dance with an angel, walk with a ghost

All versions of you end at the goalpost

Is it the sound of a shutter, the drum of a heart beat

Is it heaven above or the ground beneath her feet – Nausher

You’ve been faulted and you’ve been feted
You’ve been excluded you’ve been exalted
When seeking the sacred always be naked

You’ve been exhausted and you’ve been enchanted
You’ve been devoted and you’ve been detested
When seeking the sacred always be naked

You’ve been beloved and you’ve been blighted
You’ve been invited and you’ve been invaded
When seeking the sacred always be naked

You’ve been heralded and you’ve been hated
You’ve been trumpeted and you’ve been tormented
When seeking the sacred always be naked

You’ve been perverted and you’ve been perfected
You’ve been erected and you’ve been eroded
When seeking the sacred always be naked

You’ve been lambasted and you’ve been lamented
You’ve been garrotted and you’ve been garlanded
When seeking the sacred always be naked – Nausher

 

 

 

 

Here I sit, there you stand

Silence has handcuffed your hands

Stretch the night to meet the sun

Open the day with the keys to the kingdom

Touch the space between your head and your face

Brace for the sacred in that secret place – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

The house on the rock, the writing on the wall

Watch the tides rise and fall

Inside of me, in spite of me

Mene mene, I have the key

Love, lust, desire are tightly braided

Beauty is sublime and the sublime sacred

The sacred, remember, is always naked – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

If life teaches you anything it is this
If it is not in frame it does not exist
Life and love are tightly braided
Beauty is sublime and the sublime sacred
The sacred, remember, is always naked – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

The gods created night
Thunder, lightning and twilight
Created the shine in your eyes
As you searched the skies
For the whys, the sighs, the fireflies
And this is your prayer
This is your hour
The power of beauty
The beauty of power – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Something about power moves me

Fuse that with beauty

And you have god

This is the question

This is the answer

The power of beauty

The beauty of power – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Mirror mirror on the wall
What do we see before we fall
The poetry of memories and lust
Ashes to ashes dust to dust
Kissed by the flame, we meander in a mist
If we’re not in frame we do not exist
We stumble between the blur and the after
We leave behind our breath on the mirror

You are a poet in a nation of shopkeepers

You are a prophet in seas of insanity

You are the head on a coin

A message, a sign

You are nothing

Yet you are the messiah

You’re daughter of lightning

You’re goddess of thunder

The power of beauty

The beauty of power – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

i am a poet in a nation of shopkeepers |
i am a prophet in seas of insanity |
i am the head on a coin |
a message, a sign |
i am Nothing |
yet i am the messiah – N

You look up to the skies
And this is your prayer

The power of beauty
The beauty of power

This is your pain
This is your pleasure

The power of beauty
The beauty of power

Put on your face
This is your armour

The power of beauty
The beauty of power

This is the question
This is the answer

The power of beauty
The beauty of power

You are the book
You are it’s author

The power of beauty
The beauty of power

Daughter of lightning
You’re goddess of thunder

The power of beauty
The beauty of power

Mirror mirror on the wall
What do we see before we fall
The poetry of memories and lust
Ashes to ashes dust to dust
We stumble between the blur and the after
We leave behind our breath on the mirror – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

The house on the rock, the writing on the wall
Give me back my secrets before I fall
Inside of me, in spite of me
I have the key, I have the key

The wound I wear, look back and stare
Nobody cares darling, nobody cares
Fragile as glass, as reflections in glass
Put on your happy face and let it pass

I leave the mirror, I enter the room
I walk the path from bloom to tomb
I stumble between the blur and the after
I leave behind my breath on the mirror
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Holding up the sky and I can feel the rain
Holding day to night, I break the chain
A ear to the ground, my lips to your ear
It is not over yet but it’s getting near
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Vanity of vanities, sayeth the preacher, all is vanity.
Me, myself, my eyes, the mirror never lies
Kissed by the flame, I meander in a mist
If I’m not in frame I do not exist – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I have been walking a straight line

Searching for what is mine

I’m looking over my shoulder

Searching for the soul in sculpture

I have been running down passages

Can’t turn the page, I can’t turn the pages

Waiting in the dark for dawn to near

I’m waiting for an end, the end is clear

Through the sandglass and into the sea

I’m waiting for the waves to bring myself back to me

– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

 

 

I love watching the city when it is raining
I watch it cry like its heart is breaking
I watch lights shimmer by my side
Watch shadows glow and glide
I’m standing watching people run
Watching them praying for the sun
Another one bites the dust
And another one bites the dust

Beneath my mask I see a face

An angel beneath my wings

I hear the skies whisper grace

Whisper of those little things

I’m the bones beneath the clay

In the hours time swept away

I sit and wait for tomorrow

To remove the mask that I borrowed – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

 

 

 

I have been walking a straight line

 

Walking down my night mind

 

Searching for what is mine

 

Looking into my rear view mirror

 

Looking over my shoulder

 

I don’t know what I’m searching for

 

I have been running down passages

 

Can’t turn the page, I can’t turn the pages

 

All I see is empty spaces

 

Did I see a shadow stir

 

I’m still waiting for the answer

 

I’m waiting for your answer – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

 

 

I was standing watching worlds falling
I could hear words colliding
Beauty speaking through your eyes
Through the pores of your skin
Speaking truth to lies
All is forgiven – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Remember Joan of Arc?

 

Betrayed by the very king and country she gave her life for

 

Burnt alive at 19 by the very church she lived her life for

 

Is this what happens when you answer the call

 

What chance have you got darling, no chance at all

 

Hold it higher she said, I can see the river bend

 

Keep it always in my sight until the end

 

Higher so I can see the cross above the flames

 

I have learned praise and blame are all the same

 

It’s not tears, it’s smoke in my eyes

 

I seek the heavens, I search the skies

 

Standing in the fire looking out to sea

 

Waiting for the waves to bring the water back to me

 

– NausherNash

The house on the rock, the writing on the wall

Give me back my secrets before I fall

Inside of me, in spite of me

I have the key, I have the key

The wound I wear, look back and stare

Nobody cares darling, nobody cares

Fragile as glass, as reflections in glass

Put on your happy face and let it pass

Listen to the sound of the hourglass flow

Listen to the sound of your shadow

Break the chains and feel the rain

I drink this water and am parched again – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Achingly naked, seeking the sacred
All the love and all the hatred
You know, Odi et amo

In this year of grace, fallen from grace
Follow your heart to that secret place
You know, Odi et amo

Nothing is the same, its all a game
Start the day by laying blame
You know, Odi et amo

Dust to dust, the ache of lust,
Your blood resembles the color of rust
You know, Odi et amo – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Achingly naked, seeking the sacred
All the love and all the hatred
You know, Odi et amo

In this year of grace, fallen from grace
Follow your heart to that secret place
You know, Odi et amo

Nothing is the same, its all a game
Start the day by laying blame
You know, Odi et amo

The ache of longing, the dust of lust,
Your blood resembles the color of rust
You know, Odi et amo
– Nausher Nash Banaji

Your hands don’t hold the answer

Joan of arc said hold it higher, hold it higher

Higher so I can see the cross above the flames

Praise and blame, darling, are all the same

It’s not tears, it’s smoke in my eyes

I seek the heavens, I search the skies

Born of tempests, a warrior at the mouth of dawn

I am a child of beauty in a storm

Standing in the fire looking out to sea

Waiting for the waves to bring the water back to me – NausherNash

See my face beneath this mask, it is me
See the angel beneath the wings, it is me
I’m that face, I’m the skin, I am the girth beneath it
I’m the angel, I’m the wings, I’m the earth beneath it
I’m the bones beneath the clay
In the hours time swept away
I sit and wait for tomorrow
to remove the mask that I borrowed
– N|M

See my face beneath this mask, it is me
See the angel beneath the wings, it is me
I’m that face, I’m the skin, I am the girth beneath it
I’m the angel, I’m the wings, I’m the earth beneath it
I’m the bones beneath the clay
I’m the hours time swept away
Here I sit waiting for the morrow
Here today gone to sorrow
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

See my face beneath this mask, it is me
See the angel beneath the wings, it is me
I’m that face, I’m the skin, I am the girth beneath it
I’m the angel, I’m the wings, I’m the earth beneath it
I’m the bones beneath the clay
I’m the storm it swept away
Here I sit waiting for the morrow
Here today gone to sorrow
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

See my face beneath this mask, it is me

I’m that face, I’m the skin and I am the girth beneath it

I’m the bones beneath the clay

Here I sit waiting for the morrow

Here today gone to sorrow

See the archangel beneath the wings, it is me

I’m the archangel, and the wings, and the earth beneath it

I’m the storm I’m feeling swept away

Here I sit waiting for the morrow

Here today gone to sorrow

– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

The light is fading and we’ve been waiting all day

I’m too tired to sleep, tell me can I please stay

Feels like my heart is beating in these stones

Feels like their scars run deep into my bones

On the breath of the wind the murmur of prayers pass

It’s a thing of beauty and so it cannot last

The bells ring and it’s more than I can bear

It’s not over yet, but it’s getting there

–Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

When we left the mirror and entered the room

When we walked the path from bloom to tomb

We stumbled between the blur and the after

We left behind our breath on the mirror

Achingly naked, seeking the sacred
All the love and all the hatred
You know, Odi et amo

In this year of grace, fallen from grace
Follow your heart to that secret place
You know, Odi et amo

Nothing is the same, its all a game
Start the day by laying blame
You know, Odi et amo

Touch your heart, the hurt of belonging
The dust of lust, the ache of longing
You know, Odi et amo
– Nausher Nash Banaji

 

 

 

Your hands don’t hold the answer

Joan of arc said hold it higher, hold it higher

Higher so I can see the cross above the flames

Praise and blame, darling, are all the same

It’s not tears, it’s smoke in my eyes

I seek the heavens, I search the skies

Born of tempests, a warrior at the mouth of dawn

I am a child of beauty in a storm

Standing in the fire looking out to sea

Waiting for the waves to bring the water back to me

 

The house on the rock, the writing on the wall
Give me back my secrets before I fall
Inside of me, in spite of me
I have the key, I have the key

The wound I wear, look back and stare
Nobody cares darling, nobody cares
Fragile as glass, as reflections in glass
Put on your happy face and let it pass

Listen to the sound of the hourglass flow
Listen to the sound of your shadow
Throw back your head and feel the rain
Who drinks this water thirsts again – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

 

Divinity and nudity

The rubble of decline

God is in the stone

My god is beautiful, strong, and naked. I kneel at Her sculpted alter, And worship at Her renaissance feet. And when the music stops and the mirror shatters She reminds us why beauty matters.

When we left the mirror and entered the room

When we walked the path from bloom to tomb

We stumbled between the blur and the after

We left behind our breath on the mirror

We are just peasants floundering in the snow
Never knowing what we’ll never know

Standing naked in the fleeting rain
Thinking someday we’ll find salvation

Wandering the world’s tired denizen
Wondering what colour is the wind

This water, this rain on your skin
This fire, this lava in your heart
What do you love, what do you desire
This heart is an organ of fire
My god is beautiful, strong, and naked
I kneel at Her sculpted alter
And worship at Her renaissance feet
And when the music stops and the mirror shatters
She reminds me why beauty matters
I raise my eyes and lay my weapons down
I hold onto heaven as the walls fall down – Nausher Nash

 

Darkling you reach into the sky
Whoever said memories don’t lie
Your fingers clutch your shadows hand
You only survive because you don’t understand
The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare
Was it paradise lost or paradise found,
Was it safety you sought in 6 feet of ground,
Were you tipping your eyes to make an impression,
Wearing a face with a borrowed expression,
Did the looking glass
look back at you in wonder,
Did you look through a mask
only to see a stranger – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I was too young to understand
But too old to forget
Naked on shifting sand
Hanging on by a thread
Walking through the door
Between the heart and the head
Your face is a mirror
Of that stranger in your bed-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I was too young to understand

But too old to forget

Naked on shifting sand

Hanging on by a thread

Walking through the door

Between the heart and the head

My face is a mirror

Of that stranger in my bed-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

This water, this rain on your skin
This fire, this lava in your heart
What do you love, what do you desire
This heart is an organ of fire
My god is beautiful, strong, and naked
I kneel at Her sculpted alter
And worship at Her renaissance feet
And when the music stops and the mirror shatters
She reminds me why beauty matters. – Nausher Nash Banaji

It looks like your world, but everything is different
Everything seems familiar, but oddly distant
What blink of an eye, whose tear, whose stare
What fork on which road is taking me where
You’re running down the track
The night burning down your back
You follow the ghost of you
And your ghosts are following you
Blinded by truth, enlightened by a lie
The die is cast in the blink of an eye – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

The night is done
Gone with the wind of the first sun
Dreams on ice, the river crossed twice
I want to be alone with me
A transparent layer in history
We knew the night would pass
That the love we lived could never last
Reflections blurred by shadows past
That silhouettes would still roam free
Beauty for a day, or a day of eternity
Arches to ashes, doors to dust
Blood resembles the colour of rust
–Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

You muddle amidst murals
A promise and a prophesy in each hand
Sprawling on mirrors of frozen summer
You forget where your story began
Straining through the ebbs you fall
Grasping a fleeting embrace
The doors are peeling off the walls
Your heart is etched on your face-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Darkling you reach into the sky
Whoever said memories don’t lie
Your fingers clutch your shadows hand
You only survive because you don’t understand
The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare
Was it paradise lost or paradise found,
Was it safety you sought in 6 feet of ground,
Were you tipping your eyes to make an impression,
Wearing a face with a borrowed expression,
Did the looking glass
look back at you in wonder,
Did you look through a mask
only to see a stranger – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

You are sitting naked on shifting sand
A dream and a memory in each hand
You mirror a mirage moving alone
You call out but it is gone
The road that brought you here 
Is dragging you back
The light you thought was near
Is fading to black
The grotesque and the divine
Two sides of a coin
Through tunnels and doors
you ached you’d be free,
The doors lead to walls
And the labyrinth leads to me- Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

This is all that remains

When the smoke clears

And the embers die

The grotesque and the divine

Two sides of a coin

The sum total of a mans life

Is a bill of sale transferring ownership

You follow the truth of shadows naked
You are a pebble in the surge of drawing tide
You search the dark for something sacred
Darling can you look inside

Dancing past the chimes of midnight
What is right and what is true
Down the shore and into the starlight
! exchange my old world for the new

Naked now our skins are crawling
We sit in our bones looking out from the hill
Face pressed against the window
The snow is melting and the earth is still-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

take the leaves back to the forest

and the water back to the sea,

turn the stone back to ashes

bring the dust back to me.

Carrying my past inside me
It’s the future I’m returning to
Wearing my mask inside me
What am I turning into?
There is a stranger in my head
Screaming naked in the rain
My mind is clear he says
But my soul is insane,
Sometimes I wish I could fly
but where can I go
Where can I hide
So my shadow won’t find me
Everything I am fleeing
is right here inside me – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

You follow the taillights in the sky
Starting and ending
Fading down pillared corridors into another world
Away from the trivial the inane the babble the trash
Away from life’s symmetry of madness
i have felt the warm breath of stormy seas

Heard waves ebb and flow deep inside of me

Heard their heart beating like it was my own

Felt them turn, retreat and return

They will still be here

Long after I am gone

And the sower will sow the word

A soul at peace in a world of violence

And the word will be silence

Removing the blindfold is pain
Because of what you might see
It’s easier to live in chains
Than it is to be free
Darkling you walk into the light
Staring blind wrong from right
Sweating palms clutching a shadow’s hand
You only survive because you don’t understand
The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

My god is beautiful, strong, and naked.
I kneel at Her sculpted alter,
And worship at Her renaissance feet.
And when the music stops and the mirror shatters
She reminds me why beauty matters. Nausher

What the gods give

Man quickly takes away

From the ebbs in your eye

To that void in the sky

From the blackness of light

To that tsunami of night

The night caresses secrets in a dream

Speaking of promises unspoken

The doors open to the wind of the first sun

And nothing recalled will ever be forgotten

You sat there a while scanning the miles

Free child of beauty and a caged reptile

You wish you could fly but dreams cloud the sky

The rain in your brain is washing them dry – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo