she had always said
her favorite color was yellow
for the girl with buttery skin and crystal eyes
it seemed rather fitting
yellow was the color of sunshine
and the color of her hair
after it had been bleached by summer
it was the color of the bumblebees
that drank from her favorite flowers
flowers that now
line her grave

she told you
her favorite color was yellow
because she knew you needed someone
radiant with light
to ease the depth
of your own darkness
so she said
when autumn arrived
you could watch the ground
become littered with yellow leaves
together

when you asked what color
lie beneath her skin
she told you it was yellow
she made herself believe
her body was freckled from stardust
and not from the amber glow
of cigarette burns
she still said
her favorite color was yellow
so she could continue being the light
in your colorless world

soon enough
your favorite color was yellow too
but not for the same reasons
she fell in love with it
you only saw yellow vaguely
in the form of teeth
stained from tobacco and too much coffee
smiling grimly through cracked lips
dripping poisoned honey
you guilded the word ¨love¨
with muted ochre lies

and now
she no longer feels the warmth
that once emanated
from her favorite color
she no longer tastes
the sweetness of butterscotch
and papaya on your lips
for you left her with nothing but
the sour residue of lemons and bile
as your gentle breath
extinguished her golden flames
and reduced her heart to ash

and now
she realizes that bumblebees
can also administer a piercing sting
and as she watches the sunset
with its amber hues
she no longer sees
the color yellow


x.

Couplets
Love is a real belief to grow
Between the hearts to flow
It is a streak of light to glow
Enters in drop to be rainbow

----------

Do you know what love is
Whatever but I do speak
What ever is in your heart
Like a bright light streak

Col Muhammad Khalid Khan
Copyright 2018 Golden Glow

It poured a heavenly rain today
The roads washed anew
Little streams danced and slid down the alleys to the music rains play

The Gulmohar petals in orange red hues
Lay strewn on the pavement grey
Perched atop the green leaves
Glorious they looked in the warm sun rays

A walk in the evening mellowed rains
The tiny raindrops fell gently upon my face And raincoat peach
Luminous  under the street lamps
Silvery Rain-beams dance

Running in the eternal race of time,
searching for the roads to easier days;
Never fully knowing what lies ahead,
looking for ourselves within the haze.

Suddenly in mirrored circles do we see,
reflections shared of one another's faults;
Which bear essential words in frosted light,
excavated in spirals from secret vaults.

Forgiving not the spell that's duly cast,
on frequent plots by mystics at the center;
While roundabout lives crumble and unfold,
with endings choked into a careless banter.

This course we navigate is timeless yet,
each soul extending far beyond the sphere;
Of cherished thought indelibly replaced,
by traces of a past no longer feared.

congratulations on this special day

remembering the gain of freedom
from unjust monarchy
after hard struggles for democracy
and universal human rights

today we also need to be aware
of new dependencies and tyrannies
that have since come among us quietly
and with deceptive lures of easy lives and riches
of glamor  reputation  millions of virtual followers
& other such amenities in our age
try to persuade us that these are the only worthy goals in life

the most decisive loss of independence
is when we do no longer feel its absence
and happily embrace the bars of our golden cage

The bakula and the madhumalti
Sway in the warm wind
Watching children play
In stained shirts
With mud-filled nails
Bare feet and beady drops of laughter
Unmindful of the heat
While a dog playfully rolls over
Trying to hold the sunlight
That falls through the trees
A bird flies low resting on the firangipani
Butterflies dance around the hibiscus
And bees swarm happily
Hedges have blossomed with flowers
Creepers tap against the window pane
To wake the forgotten child in older hearts
And tell them that summer reigns