Oculus — By Madiha Mattoo
A voice of silenced
A symphony of unheard,
Some words with beauty
Held in truth
In the lap of Jhelum, with the voice of saffron
You took the world’s tenderness, and rendered it poetry
You held my hand and took me on the voyage of crimson crystals,
That float over hearts and sink in the soul
Shahid! You canoe the music of ink and life, beyond the ash rains!
“…We walked through the streets of an emptied world”.
A guide to the light, you became the bearer
Of stories, of songs, of stars, of scars
Shahid! You wrote the gaze of feelings- through the yellow pages!
Your letters written in language of love
Smitten with hope
Jeweled with whispers,
Reached every beat that read your breath
Reached even the Country Without Post office
Shahid, you sung the songs of Begum Akhtar,
In the melody of syllables,
You touched the petals,
You wrote about
The dance of colors,
Faiz skims in the sky of your poem
In urdu’s tapestry, you wove the catharsis
Above language; beyond english
Everything you wrote, Agha,
It became like you
You left this world with the treasure of the veiled
Scintillating with sapphire of tears
In rain of desert, upon cloud of sighs
Shahid! The birds you set free,
Glide through the spaces of alphabets,
Fly high and far
Though each feather weeps for you
In the memory of your unheard smile,
It rains when I say this,
Mad heart, be brave
Written by : Madiha Mattoo
The author can be reached on her Instagram here.
