Samah Khan Poems

I.

How shall I speak to you today?
Shall I speak with words of love upon my trembling lips?
...

I am not afraid of dying,
But ' twould be no falsehood to say I am afraid of death;
This is my life, this is the irony, the satire-
I can be nude and plain in the concluding embrace of death,
...

I watch you rise from the place you rest,
Your eyes the whitest shade of pale-
Your pasty skin and stale coffin breath,
Your movements reluctant, your limbs so frail.
...

I cannot define you-
You are indefinable
You're the epitome of God's finesse
You are undeniable
...

(My trials have wrought me by iron mail
I cannot escape, struggle, though I may,
I am pulled to the ground, neck-deep in sand,
Do I have my fate in my palm? I wouldn’t know,
...

The price we must all pay for beauty
Is countered by the free distribution of ugliness-
There is no sky left untouched
And no ground left unscarred
...

Now the voices say ‘rest child’,
They reverberate through my soul, whirring like old machines,
Bickering like aged aunts; And I want to listen,
I am tired and my bones have grown past my age-
...

C an I be helped if I fall too often
A nd scab a knee or break a limb?
T rust me to make myself an early coffin
A s my predicament seems quite grim
...

H e embodies all that I wish embodied
A nd stays true to his word, as few men do
N ot once do I consider him party to the lot
D oes his love for pride and honour not shine through?
...

If you strike me
I shall not feel the sting
For the sting has possibly been there all along
Like an aggravating itch that no one scratched away.
...