Had I Been A Poet Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

On the sea green shores that washed,
The sands of life in its arduous contours.
The exhibit is the subtle expose of a shy beauty,
The smile would leave butterflies from lips.

Thinking of you my words had gained,
The extempore dryness of the desert.
From the shore I held water like mercury,
Like I would hold the shower of the moon.

Like the sands that vanished between my fingers,
In my palm was the ruggedness of your soles.
Your contours held me breathing deep into myself,
The aroma has the lingering memories of yore.

Ah! The sunset shone on my face leaving its gold.
It set its red in the silver of beaming waves.
From the tip of the hill that oft was visited,
Damsels that rode the trunks of date palms.

O! Forlorn night of dreams bring this sadness,
Like the embrace of the eternal beach to the sea.
Clouds of sweet happiness in the gloom of dusk,
Let the dawn meet to the languid eyes of sunrise.

To the dust I melted like a warm day of summer,
To the night as would gather stars in its fold.
The deep crevices of earth torn down by rain,
Such drought and such fertility of the sense.

The delight was achieved as would be hung,
On the leaves of the palm or goat of the shepherd.
The falcon of my love sat long on my arm,
For the dove of your love was the existence's desire.

Dust was to dust as was water to a stream,
Neither were the metaphors not beauty of similes.
Such lavish was the coast to the deep ocean,
Had I been a poet what else I could have written.

Sadiqullah Khan
Peshawar
December 15,2012.

The poem is written in memory of my posting in Makran Division, Baluchistan. It is dedicated to my friends Aly Bossin and Shahana Burgi. Aly Bossin shared some rare photographs of our tour of Dasht.