Erasure (an act or instance of erasing)

I am a crowd….

It is an epigraph (a quotation or a reference in the beginning of a poem). It presents an antithesis (two

opposite ideas cancelling each other, or erasing each other). So crowd and lonely man become nothing.
The epithet gives the main idea of the poem, that is, everything in this world comes to nothing
eventually. Nothing has any importance or value in this world as everything is bound to be erased.

Touch….loss

Premonition: anticipation/anxiety of future events

As soon as we touch anything, it becomes dust. Having physical/emotional contact with anything means
that we are bound to lose it. Nothing can stay with us forever. If we get something, we should not be
happy as achievers but should be prepared for its loss.

Drift …tide

Drift: a broad shallow ocean current, moving at the rate of 10-15 miles a day

A small drift, wave becomes a tide, swells – becomes huge. So small things tend to grow big

Sub-aqueous…reveals

Sub-aqueous: below water

Distorts: spoil the shape/appearance of something

Reveals: show

A drift tends to swell into a tide. But appearances are deceptive. The glow of water might look very
beautiful, and may put the things into a beautiful light, water may be transparent to reveal the things
underneath it, but at the same time it spoils the image or shape of things too. (remember the scientific
experiments at school where you put half of a pencil under water and its shape was bent).

I dream…the impossible

Straddling: wide apart

Sinuous: having many curves and bends

Yearning: a feeling of great longing and desire

I dream of that other life, yearning for the impossible. Meaning thereby that another life, any other life,
is an impossible thing. If you are not satisfied with what you have, then nothing doing, you cannot get
another life. You cannot impersonate any other person’s life. Even the life after death is not going to be
easy and simple. All lives, or everybody’s life is life a huge big waterfall in which is not even straight.
Is love…believe?

If you want a loved one in your life, and you are yearning for him/her, don’t think that he/she can make
your life a bed of roses. Love is bind, so it is clouded with what you believe. If you believe your loved one
to be perfect, then that image will cloud your eyes, it will make a mist, a fog, in front of your eyes and
you will not be able to see clearly. You will only see what you want to see. love is not perfect, it is yet
another waterfall in your curved life, full of difficulties.

Mirrors…what I can.

Bleary-eyed: eyes looking dull and unfocused from tiredness or sleep

Sag: slump, drop

Nostalgia: yearning of the past

Salvage: saving a ship from perils of the sea

A time comes when mirrors start telling the truth, if we are old, they will show us as old. We cannot
deceive ourselves by wearing makeup or anything artificial. Our eyes start telling the truth about our
age. They show the tiredness of life. Our flesh becomes old and is not lifted anymore, it drops down. In
such miserable times, nostalgia; remembrance of the past, is like beautiful petals of a flower on the dark
and black soil. We try to grasp at the sinking ship by looking into the past, but all in vain.

Conclusion:

Everything is being erased continuously. Everything comes to the old age as described in the last stanza.
And we can do nothing about it. Our connections, our appearances, our dreams, our love, all are useless.

This sinking down/being erased can be at personal level of human kind, or it can be taken as a lament of
the downfall of our nation as well. We say all the time that our past was so great, and Muslim scholars
did that and this, and Pakistan’s independence is full of glorifying stories, etc. but actually we are bleary-
eyed, full of wrinkles, drawing at straws of nostalgia, and doing nothing significant or worthwhile.