Do broken hearts still feel… for my heartbeat is fading
In the daylight I kneel… your shadow disappearing
* * *
My father… no longer… does my heart beat in your absence
* * *
My heart no longer beating… like a stillborn in a womb
The skin on my body fading… as if calling out for its tomb
Did my illness tear me from you… do mountains turn into sand dunes?
It took my health and my father… like a sunless and sky-less noon
* * *
I do not know how the heart works… but I know that it beckons life
When the heart pains, it beckons death… a lamb yearning a butcher’s knife
There is no love that can compare… not a husband’s love for his wife
A daughter’s love for her father… is as strong as worship and faith
* * *
You left and left here your shadow… as the days pass I watch it fade
How does sunlight take it away… when for you the sun was made?
How did the walks not clench to it… Hussain’s shadow they would have saved
I hear beggars crying for you… and no Hussain comes to their aid
* * *
I hear our neighbors complaining… ‘where is the aid of his neighbor?’
I hear the hungry are starving… ‘tell us where is our nourishor?’
I hear the deaf and blind weeping… ‘for us does he care no longer?’
I see birds returning from Taf… blood in their wings as they flutter
* * *
The birds here no longer recite… and dead silent is the morning
The sun edges out with its rise… as if for you it is searching
And the House of God is barren… it gives no life to those circling
The Prophet’s tomb is always damp… in his grave his body weeping
* * *
When your shadow did return… father it returned with no head
Your horse returned bathed in amber… how much of your blood did they shed?
Are your veins still flowing with blood… or do they flow with tears instead?
My heart beats but my soul is gone… while you drowned in the blood you bled
* * *
(Dearborn – 28/05/19)