Thursday, March 05, 2009

So must I write a poem?

So must I write a poem every time you leave me,
every time you go and leave me behind?
For this would leave me wordless,
as our partings are too numerous, too long,
and our natural destiny, it seems.

Must I write a poem every time the hour fades
into longing, with silence marching in
as your steps fade way, each fading step
in step with each silence that each step
gives?

I cannot leave our meetings to serendipity.
I do not trust chance encounters outside sad cafes,
your hair astray and my fists shackled,
you lost in reading a poem
and I lost in my loss.

There is no meaning in suffering. Try remembering
what has happened and the flowing tides of time
will stop. Then other lovers will resume their trysts,
suns will set, the time to part will come for others
too, but my loss is mine alone.

I must learn to trace my words in the shadowy
shadows of the moon or the henna that has dried
on your palms. I must try trusting fortune tellers
and hope that the sun that has set and the moon
that stung have not done so in vain.

5 comments:

Roxana said...

oh, this is even more beautiful, kubla. I absolutely love the last two stanzas. such brilliant images and a very well-crafted atmosphere of subdued sadness. and even hope in the end, this is a bit unusual for this dark and wounded voice, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

yaar se ched chali jaaye, asad
gar nahin vasl, to hasrat hi sahi

Kubla Khan said...

Roxana, hi

To believe in a fortune teller? that could be considered as hope......or desperation?

i am really touched by your comments.thanks.

Folded letters said...

desperation is not so bad....neither is hope

Your writing gives me an ache while reading. The kind that wants to be felt over again. There's only so much to compare that feeling.

Kubla Khan said...

Folded, hi

thanks for visiting. who knows what is good or bad? who can describe an ache?