Café Sifr Poem by Sumita Jetley

She almost walked away,
from a dream spun in dust and gold,
from the whispers of a city old,
where poets bled their verses bold.

But the wind carried a calling soft,
salt and cinnamon in the air,
a murmur where the river sighed,
a voice she swore had always been there.

🌿 Lahore, a city of stories untold,
where temple bells and prayer calls blend,
where Faiz still lingers in the air,
where jasmine nights and mornings mend.

Noor was born where pages turned,
where ink held power, deep and wide,
where stars spoke secrets in the dark,
and longing never learned to hide.

She read her fate in moonlit ink,
she traced each line with steady hand,
but when the world said, "Stay, be safe, "
her soul refused to heed demand.

So she built a place, a door ajar,
for seekers lost, for minds untamed,
a world within a world unfurled,
where silence sang, where fires flamed.

A café where the poets sat,
where oud and laughter intertwined,
where thinkers sipped on cinnamon tea,
and left their doubts and fears behind.

Then on the night the doors first breathed,
a traveler stepped into the glow,
his eyes like skies before a storm,
his presence pulsed with something old.

A book he placed upon the wood,
its leather worn, its pages thin,
and in the hush, he spoke but once,
"For you, " he said. And then a grin.

She turned the page, her breath held tight,
the ink was old, but fresh somehow,
the words were echoes, etched in time,
a name she knew—a name she vowed.

Her grandfather. His script. His song.
His voice alive in verses deep.
A letter folded, waiting still,
for hands that knew which dreams to keep.

A silver key. A whispered past.
A woman watching from the door.
A truth unraveled in the dust—
her dream had lived here long before.

She had not built Café Sifr.
She had returned to what had been.
A threshold, not a start nor end,
a place where stories could begin.

So Noor exhaled and softly laughed,
the city hummed, the night stood still,
the air was thick with brewing chai,
and fate had bent to Noor's own will.