HOMELESS

Sometimes it rains ceaselessly
And droplets race down my body
Like some slippery moments
I spent with you on long wet nights.
Sometimes the sun scorches my body
And I miss the silhouette of your body
Against the warm rays of the sun
While I lay in bed feeling blissful
Screened from the rest of the world
Finding a sanctuary in the shadow of your eyelashes
The incandescence of your form
Mellowed the cruelty of the sun
And I’d come alive under the shade of your presence
Sometimes it gets really cold out here
I hold my body tight
And clasp my knees with my arms
And rub my forehead against the inner arc of my elbows
Yet I shiver and shake
And when I search for your reassuring eyes
I find myself squinting in the dark
I miss the blanket of your body
The fire of your touch
I miss burning in your caresses
I yearn for the fever of pleasure
My frozen body wants to melt into yours
Sometimes the streets get breathlessly crowded
And strangers brush past me like I don’t exist
They stare blankly as though I’m just another thing
Some stares longer than the other,
Suddenly becoming aware that there must have been beauty
Residing in me somewhere
I miss being held by your piercing gaze
I remember holding your hands
I remember walking with pride
Knowing in this over brimmed cup of life
You were mine
Secure that I belonged
I had a home.
And I had believed its walls won’t give away.

A home is all I had ever wanted
To be myself with you.
To let the masks slip
To be vulnerable
To give in
To let go
To merge
To disappear
To be free
To be found
To love
To be loved.
My home
Your body,
Your mind,
Your heart
Your soul
My only home.

Then came the tempests
Then shook the earth
The walls couldn’t contain you
Your illicit needs made cracks on the walls
Your indifference took up the entire place.
Yet I endured
My home
Was all I had?
Till it was no more

I’m homeless
A waif
Available now
Vacant
Should I advertise?
They touch me
They promise me shelter
They grope me
They say it’ll last
Just that I don’t live here anymore
Who is it inside me I wonder?
There isn’t me inside of me
Sometimes I miss my home.
Sometimes I really do.
BY
ZAID AL BASET

.......................................

Do not make promises that will disappoint,
Don’t make me search for eternity in your sparkling eyes

Just let this moment be
Let no past taint its sheen
Let no future mar its gleam,
Just take a snapshot of this moment in your mind
Cause sooner than you think ill be out of your sight
Cause sooner than you wish ill be out of your mind.

I have rummaged for love in this cluttered world,
I have gathered bits and morsels of love,
But let me not forget that love cannot hold me tight
For I’m not what, with which is love defined
No you can’t marry and take me home,
No you can’t hold my hand and feel bold

Don’t tell me you want this to last forever
Don’t be so sure that you will never go away.

I have heard these words so many times before.
I have seen such eyes admire me before
But trust me there a thin line between poetry and abuse
Please believe when I say you won’t stay forever seduced

I’m a magician and I can cast spells
But let me tell you a secret - these illusions will betray
And then you shall run, run for your precious life
And you shall make every moment a beautiful lie

Don’t insist you can love no one but me
Don’t say you are attracted to just me

Love, that fleeting, ephemeral high
Lust, that desperate unbearable sigh
So you felt both with me in your arms
Yet your eyes were closed,
Your senses were numbed with pleasure
You did not realize what I was, did you?
Not a man that in daylight you could abhor
Not a woman who you’d desire in some wet dream
I was just an essence
A promise of love
A soul searching for some permanence
In this temporary world
You neither lusted nor did you love

Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you the dream would break,
Don’t tell you didn’t know that you will wake up and leave.

For I was simply an essence
A promise of love
A soul searching for permanence
In this temporary world.

by ZAID AL BASET

Watch there, the day coming
Watch the shepherd leading
His brown hair in the wind
Watch there, opens the door
Of the house of love
He comes as gentle as the wind
That plucks the apples from their boughs


Scio amo

Watch there, the day coming
Watch the shepherd leading
His brown hair in the wind
Watch there, opens the door
Of the house of love
He comes as gentle as the wind
That plucks the apples from their boughs


Scio amo

The rose fades, only its memory remains
The friends have all gone, the Friend remains



~~Scio Amo

What if I offer you the blue sky?
Will you return then, I have nothing to offer you but my breath
And the blue sky
O friend, will you return?

O heart, what has happened to you?
Without a lover, you have fallen in love

Does the grape wait before fermenting?
You may ask the moth not to sink in fire

I have spent my life gazing at the road
One more day, my heart will not break

Was Ayaz the most beautiful of slaves?
Yet he was acceptable to you

I had a thousand wishes, none could I satisfy
Beauty teased Adam with the curse of mortality

A few sparks were enough to turn my nights to sleepless day
If creation was so beautiful, how beautiful must the creator be?

Four men take me to a bed of flame
An evening of regret for an eternity of ecstasy

The rose fades, only its memory remains
The friends have all gone, the Friend remains
Naked in Eden you saw me,
Now it is you who have removed the veil

Fading summer leaves a warmth on my cheek
When you shall draw away the night, what shall protect me
From your gaze, my friend?

I whirl, all is you, I whirl, I am you
The sun has sent out its light and veiled itself
But all is light, all is you

O gazelle, the perfume is in you, stop your mad longing
The fire you run from, Man, is in you

When the candle is extinguished can you see anymore the burnt moth?
Where I am, you are not, let me die, all will be you

If a beautiful face can leave behind such peace, my heart what will happen to you
When you see the beauty of souls?
Your beloved in flesh has veiled beauty, yet a bird sings of emptiness

I leave the tavern
True drunkards make their house in the street

I have spent my days in dreaming, and my nights in searching for you
Does the victor ever return to what he has won?

Heaven has given us wings, and a lifetime of sorrow
So what? Shall we blame God?

All cry for the martyr except he himself who in death has met God
Never does love find so beautiful a nest as in the executioner’s axe

When the Companion comes you will offer your neck and cease to exist
Why worry what will happen after? Will the pot complain if the potter breaks it?

Sing like the swan and cease to be
You have lived and loved, that is all you are,
Now be silent and let Him love


Scio Amo