Rebirth

I woke and saw you lying close beside me.
With unblinking eyes, I bent and gazed at you endlessly.
You opened your eyes and smiled at my face,
I wondered, was this only a dream’s embrace?
Or was it real, written yesterday in our sacred vow?
No, not a dream, truth was here, here and now.
At last the story had found its end complete,
Who could measure my joy, my heart’s quick beat?
I had lost so much, yet found you again,
What else could matter, what loss, what pain?

But then, I opened my eyes once more,
And you were gone, not lying there as before.
Just moments ago, you were at my side,
Where had you vanished, where did you hide?
I rose and searched for you everywhere,
But nowhere I looked, you weren’t there.
Had it all faded, that moment so near?
I wandered back, with a trembling fear.
And what I saw, I was not prepared,
Myself asleep on the bed, a sight I stared.
In my hand a folded note was pressed,
I opened to read what my own hand had confessed:
"In this life I could not call you mine,
But in the next, let our fates entwine.
This wretched life broke without your part,
So may rebirth return and heal this heart."

Then I remembered, last night was your dreamt bridal night,
But I, in that joy, built my deathbed in quiet.
Live well, beloved, live your days apart,
For in this life I cannot meet you, nor give you my heart.
To see me alive would only bring you grief,
So I let go, bound by faith, by family, by belief.
I left you behind, for your peace alone,
So no other’s shadow could darken your own.

You loved butterflies, didn’t you so?
Then care for the one that enters your window.
For if I return in wings of fragile hue,
I could not bear neglect,
not in this life, nor the next one too.

Poem: Rebirth

- Khubayb Hossain