You gave me a jar of wild honey
I gave you my love
My love is so much
like honey collected from the forests
Several springs lie dissolved in it.
Each night the
weight of your body
wearies my arms.
But you lie against another
woman’s body in a town
far away from my home
How long is it
since you and I began
to run round the rim
of a circle seeking
out one another?
I cannot guess
Today
I do not even know
if I am pursuing you
or if you are pursuing me.
morning is leagues away
makes me lie
each night sleepless.
Was it in another
life perhaps remote that
I heard for the first time
your soft voice, your
gentle words?
Why do you stand
silent outside my door?
Your silence thumps against
the walls of my heart.
Who built a shrine
at my feet?
Prayer bells trill in my ears.
I am a river that flows
on, unaware of its
limitations. On an
evening after the sun had
set you visited me.
It was then that it flowed
as if in spate.
Who can now stem its flow?
did my arid life
turn into a plaything
meant only for you?
You were a scholar.
You roamed around
scattering shreds of moonlight.
Today you are wise.
You burn like the Sun.
But I tremble fearing
that one day you might
discover the transience of
our love. Am I
to get scorched by the sun?
We had as
weapons only our religions.
We had to abandon
them on the floor
before we could embrace
each other.
Why do you
stand before me with
the troubled face of a
convict? Why do you
tremble in fear before
the one who loves you?
I admitted you into
the interiors of my
home only because you
were an innocent.
seeking in me the lost treasures
of youth? Oh pilgrim
late in arriving, your
only duty is to give
me my last drink of water.
Your finger tips
are blunted for you chew
your nails. With blunted
fingertips you strum my
heart strings, you liberate
strange melodies. This is to
be our honeymoon. We
joined the suicide squad
ready for self-sacrifice
And if love is not
a sacrifice what then
is its meaning?