Snake

There is a snake asleep

in all of us
soaking in a swamp
of stale saliva
His fangs sharpened
by the shiny stones
that guard his ghostly garden
Slowly his cursed coil unwinds
as he slithers to an unsuspecting prey
His venom spreads the endless hurt
The poison of a reckless word.

Struggle

With every unjust

law repealed
With unjust thoughts and deeds
revealed
With unjust rulers
neuralised
With every tyrant
victimised
With each oppressive
system overturned
With every effigy
that burns
The struggle great
must still begin
To cease injustice
from within.

Sabr

Sabr is a stone

silent

between mountain and sand

alone
Stone does not weep

fearless

of dangers in the dark.

asleep.

Stone does not shiver

patient

in the Winter cold -waitng

on the river.

Tiger

Tiger purr me a dream

Of the times you growled at the hunter prowling in the distance

Taunting him with staunch tenacity

With lighting leaps of bold audacity

I hear the rifle sounding

But louder still beneath your fur

I hear your great heart pounding!

Mother

Why does the world not know you
Is it a disguise
See they not the wings you have
The peace within your eyes
Feel they not the love you spread
In smiling sincerity
The unassuming selflessness
The plain humility
Sense they not the certitude 
Inscribed upon your soul
To be the least yet care the most
you’ve made in life your goal
Too may people search to know
Through hows and why’s and who
In books obscure they fail

 A Mother’s mercy knows no end

I’m sure that she must be heaven-sent.
always there to lend an ear
a soothing word to calm our fears
Even when the times were tough
To sense her smile was quite enough
Her kindness and her selfless sharing
coupled with her love and caring.
It therefore comes as no suprise
beneath her feet lies paradise!

In Medina
I breathed the sacred air of Medina
the same air that annointed his noble chest.
I tread the hallowed ground
in which his humble sandals sank
recounting his steady steps
through the city’s dusty alleys.
I lingered in the same blazing sun
that caressed his blessed brow
and gently tinted his olive skin.
I lay under the same starlit heaven
that sheltered him in slumber
and that witnessed his nocturnal devotion.
I was consoled by the coolness
of the very breeze
that shaded him in prayer
and found solace in the same midnight silence
that harboured his deepest thoughts
and invocations
I found hope by the light of his presence -
at peace with the world -
in Medina - the city al-Munawara.

Journey

If at this point
my soul’s recalling
or with this verse
my leaf is falling
How ready shall I be?

If in this thought the barzakh beckons

with these few words
my final seconds
How ready shall I be?

As I account the sordid rations:

foul words, misdeeds and worthless passions
I dread a journey ill-supplied.
How then to bridge the grand divide,
mere with a slender steed?
With little else to intercede
but habits honed by parents’ creed?

I swear by death - no mitigation

offers life a consolation;
Save a prayer for clemency:
Ar-Rahmaan please pardon me!