Saturday 13 October 2012

The Fade




I'm watching for the Fade,
Or the soft leaving; possible causes
For slow smiles delayed
The absent nods and pauses.
Noting possible lags and gaps
In her round robin stories,
Her head-scratch to fill the lapse
In her long wrung memories

I'm watching for the Fade
The sputtering in her fission,
Knees resisting but mind obeyed,
And the slow, long evocation
That she adds to the "La Illah..."*
That she sculpts with hefted hand
That she charges the "...ilallah"**
To flow her faith to me as I stand 

I'm watching for the Fade,
Adding things to my observations
Like cups not washed, bed unmade
The welts of age, the mild confusion,
The siege of pill after alabaster pill,
The half second more in opening doors,
And the disconnect between force and will;
All these ebb and erode to my core.

I am watching her fade, Saqi, and all the things I was with her.

by Ali.A.Naqvi

Notes * & **In Islam the call to prayer has the words "La Illah illalah"- "There is no God but God"
This poem is contemplation on foreseeing the loss.of someone you love to age

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