At Times I Wonder
"At Times I Wonder"
By M. Taha Effendi
(Nazam)
At times I wonder what life would have been worth
Spent cloaked in soft shades of your sable tresses
If ill-fated darkness that shrouds my wrecked hearth
Was slayed by vigorous radiance of your eyes' recesses
Oblivious to earthly callings would it be so unfair
If I remained in your mesmerisms so eternally engrossed
Your heavenly allure my parched eyes would ensnare
On the fabrics of your existence my love I embossed
When plagued by the bitterness of life's onerous race
I would drink the glacé elixir upon your crimson lips
Bury my distresses within the calm of your embrace
Build my sanctuary in the shade of its eclipse
Sigh! This traitorous heart pounds even in such dismal state
I breathe with no hope of mirth nor a word of protest
My vacant eyes resigned to this inescapable fate
I stand unwilling to rebuild my plundered nest
Clasped perforce to my bosom the agonies my love bequeath
I heave my wounds through accursed corridors that adorn
Deathly shadows that loom, daunting horrors that wreathe
Where every step garlands me with camouflaged thorns
With not a course in sight, neither a goal nor any thrill
I trudge with bare feet across the scorching earths
Dreading the inevitable plunge from edge of sanity and still
At times I wonder what life would have been worth
(Finalist - International Poetry Soup Contest 2012)
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