The Ache That Refuses To Die : IMRAN YOUSUF

The Ache That Refuses To Die

Imran Yousuf 

How would I say

we no longer meet.

We do, yet we do not.

We cross paths, never speak.

We meet in a wet eye,

in desolated dreams,

in uneven beats.

We no longer stand

at the corner of that niche

where I waited for hours

for a single glance.

Years have passed.

The soil turned barren.

Feelings dried out.

We meet,

but a hard wall rises

between us,

a wall we placed there

brick by brick.

Dawn breaks apart,

sinks into the cradle of dusk,

slips into dark corners

that hide my scars (too).

Whom do I tell.

Where do I cry out.

The rush in my blood,

the hurt of separation,

the words that left my mouth

never reached their mark.

I stand with the truth I kept.

Nothing heals.

Nothing moves. 

Some nights the wounds open (again).

And sometimes silence takes over.

I know the distance was chosen.

If anything lives between us now,

it is the ache that refuses to die.

(Imran Yousuf is a poet, writer, columnist, and translator from Kashmir. His poems and translations have appeared in leading literary magazines and international anthologies, and he has co-authored over 30 collections. He is well known for his acclaimed series on Kashmir’s Sufi poets, now being compiled into a book.)