Imaryamnaveed

Sae-ko & Hamza 💌

“Your love makes me feel things
I thought no longer existed,
like a migrant visiting his ancestral home,
certain the walls would have collapsed by now.
But love and old houses
persist,
even after everyone leaves,
the way the neem tree in the middle of my Dada’s courtyard
refused to disappear.

Your love takes me back,
a child circling the neem tree,
staying up the whole night
on the wooden swing.

It whispers in my ear,
‘Life is too short, come dance,
use all the words you know.’

But when you smile,
I forget all the words I know.

Yet this silence is different.
This love is different.
You are different.

Or at least I want to believe
you are.
I really hope
you are.”

— Jasir Shahbaz