Blooming buds know not devastation;
their roots forever exploring the softness of mud in the midst of winter,
flooding the city with prospect—
all blackness and all sweetness, can I desert a war I haven’t joined?
Watered, this ache consumes me,
tastes like absinthe without sugar in the early hours of morn;
a duskier abalone,
like an ashen memory that curls around the edge of the brain—
my pen still speaks your name.
What is this obsession of 2 AM with Poets?
I can crave the touch of words
endlessly,
but it will not be the death of me, how can it be?
Has the night ever complained of constantly being accompanied by clouds?
Cast your fragrance upon me,
your eyes deep, dark and mysterious are as the moon
in rare moments
when time slows, that’s when grassy hillside knows to sway with the wind—
how is it that I’d never noticed before?
But oh! What a rush,
this feeling, this understanding of the world being ephemeral
as it has always been;
there is nothing in which deduction isn’t as frightening as it is
around the hour of apocalypse—
bloodied, these streets speak of bedlam,
why is it that men must turn against each other for reasons incomprehensible?
Hold me until I no longer feel the emptiness,
should I ever
be unable to gaze upon your lovelier face, deep into the earth
my conscience lies; and for good reason,
how does one say goodbye when they have yet to experience hello?
I don’t want to.
Photo credits: Pinterest
Tonight we are doing turns, shifting the perspective in our
poems with Peter at dVerse Pub. Come join us! 💝
Posted for MTB: Middles & Turns @ dVerse Poets Pub
I love how you start with the 2 AM pondering and go into that realization that it’s all in the nature of humans… as you say: how can we say goodby without even saying hello.
Thank you so much, Bjorn 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
A beautiful poem, Sanaa! It’s full of so many wonderful lines and allusions to life and death, the ephemeral. Those final lines are wonderful!
Thank you so much, Merril 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
Is there a turn when something unseen has always been in front of you?
Of course there is – when you realize it is so.
Thank you so much, Ken 🙂 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
Outstanding the anguish turned pleasure—it’s imagery like layers of pretty packaging that you don’t want to rip but read slowly–I will return to enjoy little bits. I really enjoyed your hello and goodbye ending. Well-done with a gush of a turn.
Awww gosh! Thank you so much, K.Hartless 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
I am humming the Beatles ‘I say hello and you say goodbye’ ….. this is gorgeous, Sanaa.
Thank you so much, Helen 😀 so good to see you 💄❤️
Beautifully penned!
❤️❤️❤️
Oh the yearning and the torment of unconsummated desire I feel here. The restless nights, the anxiety that it never may be. Beautiful poem, Sanaa.
Thank you so much, Lisa 🙂 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
Your images are gorgeous and well worth reading again and again. Luv the paradox of hello and goodbye
Thanks for dropping ny to read mine
Much💗love
Thank you so much, Gillena 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
Much love …
So many great lines that the last one is especially perfect…
I don’t want to.
❤️❤️❤️
Lovely piece Sanaa – such clever word-play – I particularly liked ‘duskier abalone’ – rhymed with ‘cast your fragrance upon me’ – and this restless questioning – ‘can I dessert a war I haven’t joined?’ ‘has the night ever complained…’ there in the first stanza the restless questioning of 2 AM – and in the second stanza – the turn, – your answer – the world is ephemeral, reduced – and the word – poetry – the muse – much more substantial – yet it’s a tentative risky embrace.
Thank you so much, Peter 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
(and thank you for the glorious prompt)
the restless questioning we’ve all known. Appreciate your dichotomy between poetry and lover … delightful use of words and phrases!
Thank you so much, Kate 😀 so good to see you 💄❤️
This is a poem going somehwere; keep it up. ‘Has the night ever complained of constantly being accompanied by clouds?’ Perfect.
Thank you so much, Doug 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
Oh, this is very beautiful. I loved the concluding lines.
❤️❤️❤️
Sanaa, your ending hit me in the gut. I suppose that was your intention.
Painfully,
David
Thank you so much, David 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
What a beautiful opening, Sanaa, ‘Blooming buds know not devastation’, and so true; I especially love the thought of all that blackness and sweetness’ that transforms into an ache that ‘tastes like absinthe without sugar’ and ‘a duskier abalone’, The question – the turn- stunned me – the poets’ obsession with 2 AM, craving the touch of words that turns into a rush. It’s so familiar.
Thank you so much, my dearest Kim 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
‘But oh! What a rush,
this feeling, this understanding of the world being ephemeral
as it has always been’
It’s such a rush, and such a lovely way to express it! For me, the whole poem pivots around this point – a star turn!
Awww gosh! Thank you so so much, Ingrid 😀 you are always so generous with praise 💄❤️
Does the poet speak of words that won’t come, or a lover? Wonderful ambiguity.
Thank you so much, Alexandra 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️