Where We Chose To End : Imran Yousuf

Where We Chose To End

Imran Yousuf 

On that forsaken path,

we chose to part.

Forever. We cleaved the moon

of our shared yearning.

I stood helpless.

Perhaps greed claimed you.

That is what I believed.

Or blindness. Or faith undone.

Or love exhausted. Or hate unfinished.

It has always been so.

It will remain so.

The enduring season of my desolation.

I wander now, a lost traveler,

held in the hollow of wilderness.

Yet one truth endures.

I despise you with tenderness.

I despise you with love.

In silence, dread takes root.

At times I long to escape myself.

At times I wish to rend

the very heart of the mountain.

The fervor of love scorches every hidden veil.

Truth collapses into distortion.

Warmth and sincerity now resemble

the hollow sermons of preachers,

crafted to deceive a fevered heart.

Within this labyrinth of confusion,

life stands arrested.

Should I accuse your cruelty,

or my devotion?

This question has bound me to the night.

I wish the ancient arrow would

pierce my heart,

either to resurrect buried longings,

or to bring an end to this pursuit,

this unrelenting thirst of life and death.

(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.)