Ashes

Don't you feel we have lost so much

that our " great " love is now only words ,

that there's no more yearning , no urgency,

no real joy in our hearts, and when we meet

no wonder in our eyes?

Don't you feel our encounters are frozen ,

our kisses cold,

that we've lost the fervor of contact

and now merely exchange polite talk ?

Or we forget to meet at all

and tell false excuses . . .

***

Don't you feel that our brief hurried letters

lack feeling and spirit,

contain no whispers or dreams of love ,

that our responses are slow and burdened . . .

***

Don't you feel a world has tumbled down

and another arisen ?

That our end will be bitter and frightening

because the end not fall on us suddenly

but came from within

Samih Al-Qasim