Many come in, none go out, he shuts his own door, opens mine

From 2 boxes I may choose to conjure up the muses 9

As I walk the lanes of Essex I recall my childhood days

When no care stood towering over when a hitch was but a phase

And when mother welcomed me back home from school with open arms

And the highlight of the long days were the tried-and-true alarms

Why talk of reality when life and love are games and dreams

And the dreams of love are never realized, or so it seems

Both our hearts did swell and smart and palpitate and pelt and ache

But what of your vows of love of not to part and not to break?

For the bond of love will ever be in my heart ever true

To the cause of poetry and truth and beauty and to you

I was, ah I was the happiest person in the world with you

And you never trusted me that what others said is untrue

And you are so wrong in guessing that I’ve found another girl

You still do and you will always put my senses in a whirl

Did you leave me crying out for your love for to go and find

Someone else and leave the beauteous memories we made behind?

You say that you felt on top of the world with a friend like me

But I threw you out of focus (tohu bohu) crazily

Crazy are we not – To fall in love in such a hopeless way

Hoping against hope that all will be well, we will meet some day?

Why do you keep asking me to please forgive you? I did not

Ever take offence at anything you said or did, you’ve got

Pertness that the fairies vie for, beauty that the angels die for

And the smiles that poets cry for, what on Earth are you so shy for?

You will always be here in my heart’s most secret hiding place

For my love is also that of lovers who cannot embrace

‘That’s what it means to say I love you more than you’ll ever know’

Now I know and now I vow to show true friendship and to grow

In that bond of friendship that no person in the world can show it

But we know it – That’ll be the secret of your humble poet!

So wrap up the nosegays here and there and scribble out the fires

Of desires and adjust yourself before daddy transpires

                                                                    ~Rehan Qayoom

                                                                               London, United Kingdom