She and I
She and I would talk of wonder and dread,
of desires and disasters,
boys and girls pacing up and down
the sidewalk beside us,
milk she forgot to put back in the fridge,
writing tables, bookshelves, table lamps, kitchens,
plumbers and fixers.
She and I would talk of families, spouses and
siblings,
pets in the neighbourhood
who have the same faith as their keepers,
of lying to loved ones about sex and night outs,
travels,
friends found when travelling,
hat racks in aircrafts with defective latches,
unkempt interiors of slow moving trains,
rivers, mountains, forests, deserts,
oceans and dreams.
She and I would talk of our country,
dust can hold it together for so long,
of Gog and Magog
licking up the walls of sanity,
of people and their struggle,
wounds unhealed and seasons we fear.
The sibilance of sorrow creeping behind us,
we wished we chat till the world ends
and the world always ended.
From: between You & Your Love. Selected and New Poems Fazleesons. Preface by Dr Tariq Rahman. Compiled by Adnan Sattar, Karachi 2004
About Harris read here
