Wednesday, April 27, 2005

agha shahid ali

Leaving Your City

In the midnight bar

your breath collapsed on me.

I balanced on

 

the tip of your smile,

 

holding on to your words

as I climbed the dark steps.

 

Meticulous,

your furniture neatly arranged for death,

 

you sharpened the knife

on the moon's surface,

polished it with lunatic silver.

 

You were kind,

reciting poetry in a drunk tongue.

I thought: At last!

 

Now I loiter in and out

of your memory,

 

speaking to you wherever I go.

 

I'm reduced to my poverties

 

and you to a restless dream

from another country

 

where the sea is the most expensive blue.

 

***

 

My finger, your phone number

as its tip, dials the night.

 

And your city follows me,

its lights dying in my eyes.

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