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a desi student-led literary community for artists everywhere.
Flower Pots
By Afra Ahmad
The biggest testifiers of our love:
Two flower pots under my rusty window.
One in which geraniums thrived,
Other in which chrysanthemums smiled,
We cherished not the flowers,
but our self-invented ritual of sprinkling water over them together.
---
A small misunderstanding: a gash in your soul
And your gilded heart did not look back,
Not even to meet those flower pots for the last time
Not even to collect the wallet you left under the windowpane
Not even to bid farewell:
When your eyes rained for the last time,
they swept away all our priceless memories
---
---
Half a decade but the flower pots have managed to survive,
They have loved you, they have observed me loving you,
But tonight, when the news of your death
Reached my geraniums and your chrysanthemums,
The flowers wailed and pleaded their leaves to wilt
(I broke the flower pots)
For how could they breathe more,
(How could I allow them to breathe more?)
When their beloved's beloved had stopped breathing?
---
Two years have passed
They say the pangs of separation make it arduous for days to pass quickly
I believe the pain of separation allows a peculiar form of light to seep right into your heart
not a scintillating one, but a light nonetheless
Removing other vices of the soul:
The days are unsparing but not long
---
---
What I was forced to sacrifice
will always be far greater than the strength I have gained
If only you had given me one chance
To explain myself, to clear the fog that blurred your pretty vision--
But there's no room for any negligence when it comes to matters of the heart
For while love can be profound, love can also easily be lost
illustration by Afra Ahmad
Afra Ahmad is a writer, poet, artist and calligrapher.
Based in Saudi Arabia, she holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature. She writes about everything under the sun: from dark issues of the society to problems faced by teenagers to imparting chunks of wisdom through her poems, stories and write-ups.
Her works have been published in various magazines including Her Hearth, Melbourne Culture Corner, Iman collective, MYM, Rather Quiet, Olney Magazine, Blue Minaret.
Click below to read her other piece for this issue!