Words are beads O poet, in your rosary, for counting tears Who else can but you to make strings of clouddrops of tears? Promises are fulfilled, days departed, my eyes dried like parchment Caravans move on, the desert road, who will wipe a bird’s tears? Let me go back to my island O lord, to live with my people, with peace Who wants dark days dropping like evils on the lake of tears? Friends are funny until their claws scratch the widows of my love Have you got friends those have not loosened your teeth or made you shed tears? Moon is like a golden dish full of egg poach, fried fish, succulent meat and pulao Beggars say its god’s wish; they have to keep their hunger aflame; does a fakir shed tears? Merchants do business and cross thousands of miles to sell their wares Only God knows how many shadows wait for their return and shed unaccountable tears.