Known Stranger, Wardha Jawdat [short books for teens txt] 📗

burdens,
And its dark deep depths?',
The waves knocking upon,
my self worth's door,
Get a timid reply, a meek 'Hello'.


I walk out of the ocean's lap,
As one nursed at a mother's breast,
Replenished, renurtured, refreshed;
You matter...
But maybe not so more,
I matter...
Maybe just a little more!


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"Love! Till We Die"

Starlit sky,
You sitting by,
Gazing at the heavens,
Then into my eye,
and saying in a whisper:
"Love! Till we die."


Me sitting alone,
Under the dark unknown,
Wondering why I hadn't known,
What you meant that time,
I'd have never sworn,
To love till I die.


For darling ,that bliss,
That rush that I had known,
Has, since you've been gone,
Turned with the age,
And talons, like a vice grown,
Which bleed me each day,
And wound me, in every way.


Each waking hour,
Each aching morn,
I awake,
I ache,
and I am doomed,
to love
again...
Till
The day that I,
Shall break
The curse,
And awake no more
Again.


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The Vigil

There's a hole in my soul,
It's allure is magnetic,
And it's darkness, whole.


It beckons every night
When I'm slow and sad, and weak,
The battle that I fight
Is ancient,
My defense at times meek.


My armor,
is heavy,
And my soul sore,
As my tragedies play out,
And my heart bleeds into my throat.
I have to stomp out the darkness,
Before it swallows me whole.


The battle wages till morn,
Wages on and on,
I have to hunt for that dawn,
Which will finally,
Defeat the hole


Till then,
I must live this vigil;
Till then,
stay afloat!


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Dear, Dear Father!

I hold your hand,
And am three again;
Skipping along,
Matching little paws,
To your giant stride;
Racing,
Always within that comforting shadow,
Swinging from that strong arm.


Whenever my spirit,
Exhausts my tiny form,
You have always sheltered me,
My dear father!
From every fall.
And as long as I have you,
Father, dear, dear father!
I shall forever have too,
My childhood,
Dangling from the end,
Of your palm,
Held there forever by,
the sheer force of your will,
Against time and age,
And even beyond till...


The shadow,
I could never outrun,
Is made to disappear cruelly,
And leave me stumbling,
In the petrified daze,
Of a disillusioned adult.


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Fields of Stone

There were fields of carnations here once,
Pink, orange, gold buds,
Bobbing prettily in the cool breeze.
There were birds of vibrant hues,
Chirping songs of sweet lithe melodies.


And now,


There are no carnation heads,
Just grey jagged unnamed stones,
No birds, no songs, just laments,
And distant booms of terror and bombs.
No hand left to lovingly carve,
Names or epitaphs upon dead stone,
No names even conceived yet,
For those birthed to be doomed.


No seperate graves to mourne those,
Who breathed longer than their wombs,
O Humanity! There is no way to grieve,
Befitting a holocaust this cruel.
O Murderers Of the human soul!
At least these martyrs,
In the earth are cloaked.


You, I fear, the earth too will scorn,
No room be for your carcasses repose!


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Message Upon
An Angel's Wing

You are the rose upon my grave,
You are the tears upon my pale face,
Your eulogy echoes between the skies,
And angels smile as you speak of me.
Your love has cobbled me a path,
Under heavens cool palms.


And I watch you weep for me,
And i watch you keep for me.


The warm warm memories,
Of happier summer moments,
Protected in the sheafs of that,
Much loved 'Shakespeare's Sonnet

'
And I send waves of Jasmine kissed winds,
To rouse you dear friend, from your grief.


I come to you in your dream,
To tell you to weep,
No more!
To tell you to harbor sorrow,
No more!


To tell you I received,
The roses you laid upon my grave,
And to tell you dear, dear friend,
That you made it all so sweet,
This pain, this ache of dying,
So unnaturally...
Of dying,
So suddenly...
of dying,
so sadly....


I come to tell you dear friend...
rest...
For I too am,
At peace.


Saints Don't Live Here
Anymore

I die a million deaths,
At the hands of a million whores.
I'm sold over and over again,
Across countless shifting shores.
I have no sacred temple left,
Where I can rest a sacred note.
There is no one to quench my thirst,
Now or forever more.


I shall starve for an eternity,
Before the Mannah

shall find me.
I shall walk nude amongst you wolves,
Till night's dark cloak doth clothe me.
O man! I am your Faith

,
And thou hasth abandoned me.
O man! That time is not far off,
When I too shall abandon thee.


To Ignore A Silence

Never,
Ignore a silence ,
Until ,you mean to
Ignore ,forever ,
The bearer
Of
It.


For
The silence ignored,
Is more lethal
An insult, than ,
The insult which
Begot
It.


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What Love Costs

And we're back where we began,
Back to the hauntings,
To the lonely wanderings,
Back to where the longings,
All began.


And we're back at that turnstile,
Which we crossed hand in hand,
Only to part at the other side,
Even as it swayed,
Even as we kissed.


We're there, suspended in time,
And nowhere else ,is there any trace,
And ,the nothingness, created by your absence,
Has left , no room , for pain and regret,
Upon my own fall from grace.


Raven Black

Flowers etched in glass,
Their bloom immortalized,
Their fragrance a frozen promise,
Never tested hence never broken.


Flowers etched in glass,
Their couplets monogamous prophets,
Suspended in impotent fidelity,
Never lured hence never wavered.


Flowers etched in glass,
Paragons of worth,
My reflection amidst them,
Human, tarnished, raven black!


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Annotations


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Page 11
The fear that time will rob us of our youth is so real...and the youth of that time will then rob us of our prestige...life is cruel indeed.
Inspired by Sarwar Choudhrys' piece.

Page 14
I thank Rehan for having given me this figment of his imagination to ruminate upon and then pass it off as mine.

Page 19
What goes around, comes around.

Page 41
For those who lost their lives in hands of murderers.

Page 43
For a friend whose grieving the loss of a friend. May God give you solace and strength.

Imprint

Text: Copyright © 2010 Wardha Jawdat. All rights reserved. This book contains material protected by Copyright. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author. Layout and design: Copyright © 2010 Faisal Mahmood. Cover page: 'Glamorous' by Sue Kraatz. Copyright © 2010
Publication Date: 06-15-2010

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
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