Untitled

December 1st, Jaisalmer

Dry space--sand
Bare shrubs forcing existence
No support
At times complete isolation
An individual
Reduced to its own shadow.

Caricatures with a profound dignity
Arid--richness almost complete
Coarse, black cracks--
Dust, skinlike earth
Coarse sounds, filigree against sky
Yellow and shadows dark
Mauve--thorns in sane
Coarse sounds--yet one so largely rich
Suddenly moves earth.
Night cracks gunny bags
Squares, textures light
Integrated into dark.

(Artist's diary entry 1966, Nasreen in Retrospect, Mumbai, 1995, p. 86)