Ghazal Of A Remembered Light

"A universe simpler than the design of a seed.
One star rules its galaxy, in its sky one constant bird.
Only in my dreams does his feet touch the ground.
When I smile for no reason, it is he who etches the dimples."
From Ghazal of Love by Alfian Sa'at


Sun eclipsed, the moon of your absence,
my sundial dances to a remembered light.

My fingers read the lines of your smile,
my heart recalls all the secret metaphors.

You're the mirror, I'm the room caught in it,
I am completely filled when I fill you completely.

I smile, not so much at your words of endearment
as at the dimples that paraphrase the unsaid.

Your heart in my hands is a pound of flesh,
your heart in my heart is a pounding of flesh.

Kian Seng, the traffic light green of love makes hearts skip
but it is the amber of waiting that makes hearts trip.


Your smile, you painted it for me, an audience
of one, even your mirror is not privy to it.

Your hand in mine, a pendulum swinging,
the world around us a stopped clock.

The flounce of your head, the hair swept over your eyes
& the slow motion replay in the video of my heart.

You're the flower that gives and gives, losing all your petals,
yet you bloom summer colours in winter nights.

Your finger-tip touch, my skin trembles like the water
at Bethesda, I'm healed of the pain of a long wait.

Kian Seng, love cannot be sculpted by chisel & mallet in hands,
it is shaped by the hammer driving nails into palms.