Try Again

The sun rises
The sun sets
The clock churns
Time goes on

Someone is born
Someone dies
Victories are won
Disasters strike

Calamities are overcome
Battles are lost
Hopes are won
Desires are crushed

The day ends
The clock is reset
Your chance ends
A new day is born.

Try again.

– Khushbo

I Promise.

Young and fray your face shows such pain.
Why must you suffer with me?
Tired yet refusing to leave,
You watch ever so closely.

The morphine is my only resolve.
I cannot be without, it dulls the pain,
Yet it brings on sleep so suddenly
And I miss seeing you.

My room belongs to so many:
Sometimes the nurse; a new face every visit.
Sometimes the doctor with news: unwelcome.

They tread in; they tread out.
No one reads my face, they sift through paper
Endlessly reading notes and never listening.

Despite the discomfort, despite it all;
You and I sit together and find merry things to do.
When the pain gets worse I let a tear drop and hide it well.

I cherish these moments with you: my child.
Pain or not, I manage a smile.
The light of your face keeps me alive.

I know our days together are numbered.
But we shan’t let today go to waste.
Today is ours and ours alone.

I will cherish these moments
Now, until I part with this pain;
Until we part with love.

Just remember me as I was,
And not as I am today.
And I promise,

I will watch over you forever,
as you watch over me today.

-Khushbo

I would like to dedicate this to all those who have lost someone to Cancer and to those that continue to fight the battle. These are some of the bravest and most inspiring people I have ever known. Much love, respect and prayers for all.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

– William Ernest Henley

Would you think it odd…

Photographed by Khushbo

Would you think it odd if Hafez said,

“I am in love with every church
And mosque
And temple
And any kind of shrine

Because I know it is there
That people say the different names
Of the One God.”

Would you tell your friends
I was a bit strange if I admitted

I am indeed in love with every mind
And heart and body.

O I am sincerely
Plumb crazy
About your every thought and yearning
And limb

Because, my dear,
I know
That it is through these

That you search for Him.

– Hafez