Coffee Republic Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

Your city did not grow on me,
I have overgrown it, by leaps and bounds -
These leafy lanes of yours, see how
The comb is stuck in the tresses, see how
A wet drop overflows the rock filled crystal
Outward and how the inner throb is sea's storm
As on the fourteenth of the moon, in favored winds.

My being melts in a desire,
Could I see every color, drop on earth, every flower
Could I be a presence, like the mossed effaced stone
On the corner, and the pavement rush back
Below my swift impatient steps.
My hands touching upon your copious rain
And my face shines on the abundant dew.

The mist is over Margallas, steeping hills
Northwards. Practice this sorcery twice
Who brings this magic, and wands the night's shadows,
Brilliant, my double vision, on curtain's face.
What place is this? You rootless one, dancing like
Dust particle in the colored streak of light.

With the mind's eye, I taste your face
Burning the veils with my gaze, smoldering
Not a flame myself, and convulsed becoming wick.
Who is the prey, you or me?
The night's wandering colors are on your cheeks and eyes
Invite sobriety? The sea is past the heads
And my audacious host, gather on your table's cuisine
Spiced, wined, rose petalled and let's take wings.

I run a thousand leagues away,
Yet I am static, with my closed eyes,
This is an inverted vault of sugar and honey in sweetness
You run and run, and when you open eyes
You are seated and the humming is bee's song
Living by the night's fall, and I see
The fond, waiting on the tavern's door since sunset.

Carry us away, a lover is known
Not by rags, he is known by the regal grace -
Thus the nothingness, is the magician's end game,
Effusing effervescent cool, and the eternal loss engraved
On his palm. Gained this way or that way,
Your fading steps on the wood floor,
Would anyone know that I bought a treasure for a penny?

-After an evening in Islamabad at Coffee Republic, on July 24,2014.

Sadiqullah Khan
Islamabad
July 24,2014.