The Damsel And The Window Poem by Saadut Hussain

By the withering tree, an unfastened window bolted to timeless wait.

A damsel once sat here in sparkling eyes, open arms for her beloved,

From dawn to dawn she would wait for steps, for feet drawing in

The beloved came, the damsel bore and love flourished

Her love gave a love beloved, one the seed another the fruit

Then in time a tempest raged from the southern winds

The gales of night took away the seed and the fruit, beloveds erased.

In masks of fatigues came the troopers, trampling crop, setting afire.

The door desolate, the wait incomplete, the window open in a void

Now the damsel, in coarse hair turned grey still in time.

Waits on the window that lies open, staring the void in timeless wait

The tree trunk scorched by the sun, splintering away to time decay

The damsel now a living corpse, of earth and ash on a fixed glaze

The broken glass howls in wind, drowning rains sink her soul.

Her beloveds, in obscure epitaphs sleep silent in the brooding vale.