Fall Before Springtime

FALL BEFORE SPRINGTIME

Maryam Sakeenah

Nameless One!

Too soon gone,

While I, my puerile human self 

Dreamt of a welcome

Strewing rosebuds along your untrodden path

Too soon wilted- 

A Fall before Springtime.

And I could not say goodbye

Helpless, my hands tied

I saw you taken away;

Bereft, I saw you

Ripped from my sore, bleeding flesh

And I learnt of my crippling helplessness,

A mortal weakness I could not surmount-

Mere flesh...

And yet, not quite

For I feel the Indissoluble Bond

Decreed by an Immortal Word: 'Be!'

O Flesh of my flesh, Spirit of my spirit!

We mourn but the rotting flesh

Buried under unknown darknesses...

But I take heart in the fact

That you were, are and always will be

Lodged in my wounded heart

Bound with the silken ties of a love undying

Washed in sacred tears

And in another, better world

I see you rest in serenity

In a warm embrace

More loving than a seventy mothers