The Gracious Grace Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

The Gracious Grace sent the friends -
To my wretched poverty, -alas nothing to serve,
For the night before, and the day before,
The wrenched flesh, craving boiling kettle -

Then out of void, out of nothing, feigned nothing,
I lay hands on the treasures, the choicest silver,
Coins poured from the sack, and little was more,
To them, who sat across, the two young girls,
Their mother dead, their father on crutches, feeble,
So I bade them luck, happiness -my humble re-poise.

The air changed, the noon shone bright,
Then I was taken to the expanse of the primal earth,
Sprouting spring buds, by the banks of little ponds,
Mossed stone, bamboos cornered and palms green,
Ficus changing color, and flocks of little children,
Shouting the joys, frolicking the unkempt garden.

Dinner tasted, like never before, and water
From Eden as if, with orange nectar, -last of all,
Cashewed confection, in ochre porcelain,
Cappuccino coffee, my head covered like cappuccino
Monk, -and never from breath such steam evaporate,
As my nostrils breathed the chill of the ending winter.

From my tongue slipped my mother's sweet name,
So long, not in my memory, and I felt,
In the great presence of her, as if by my side she sat,
It was a compellent blessing of the Gracious Grace -

Sadiqullah Khan
Islamabad
January 20,2016.