#firstmeeting
K
We had never met before,
But somehow you already knew everything about me.
I approached you casually,
Asking: “Got a light?”
You smiled and softly replied,
“Here, take it.”
And while lighting my first cigar,
We talked about love.
I listened, catching every sound,
My soul breaking like a dry branch,
That evening I met you,
That evening we spoke about me.
And then came the hour of parting,
I walked you home.
In a moment of brief silence
I suddenly realized — I was struck by you.
But the next morning,
I simply couldn’t believe this feeling,
And thought it would pass,
Like a yellowed autumn leaf falling to the ground.
Yet something stirred in my heart,
It woke up and played again,
Old feelings came back to life —
Hope, faith, and love!
And maybe,
When you read these lines,
You’ll laugh and say:
“Just another ****** who believes in feelings,
Such a simpleton isn’t for me!
Let him change his life and himself first!
After all, he’s not stupid, right?”
Perhaps you’ll read this poem once more,
And maybe you’ll discover something new
About my life, when I sing with my soul.
But if you don’t understand and your heart remains unmoved,
Then just take it and burn it!
I won’t tear my own heart apart —
Better you take it and rip it in two.
К
Мы не знакомы были прежде,
Но все же ты, все знала про меня,
Я подошел к тебе небрежно,
Спросив: «У вас ли не найдется огонька?»
Ты, улыбнувшись, тихо мне сказала,
“Сейчас, - да, вот возьми.”
И, закурив, свою первую сигару,
Мы говорили что - то о любви.
Я слушал, внимая каждый звук,
И душу ломал, словно сук,
В тот вечер, когда я повстречал тебя,
В тот вечер, когда мы говорили про меня.
И вот пришел час раcстованья,
Я провожал тебя домой,
В минуту краткого молчанья
Понял вдруг, что я сражен тобой.
Ну а на следующее утро,
Просто не поверил в чувство,
И думал, что это все пройдет,
Как лист осенний пожелтевший на землю упадет.
Но что – то сердце встрепенулось,
Опомнилось и заиграло вновь,
Ожили чувства прежние,
Надежда, вера и любовь!
И, может быть,
когда ты эти строки прочитаешь,
ты посмеешься, скажешь так:
“Очередной чудак, что в чувство верит,
такой простак не для меня!
Пусть лучше жизнь свою, себя пускай изменит!
Ведь он же вроде не дурак?!”
Быть может, ты еще раз прочитаешь
Вот этот стих,
И может быть ты что – то новое узнаешь
Про жизнь мою, когда душой пою.
А если не поймешь и не проникнешь сердцем,
Так лучше уж возьми сожги!
И сердце, свое сердце я рвать не буду
Уж лучше ты возьми и разорви!
6d ago
May 29, 2026 at 12:03 PM UTC
Beneath the metro’s twilight hum,
I stood where all the strangers come.
My voice was low, my fingers tight
Around a phone that lit the night.
She spoke — the girl I’d never met,
Whose voice had warmed each day we’d yet
To bridge the miles from screen to skin,
A year apart, but close within.
A village boy from Bengal's rain,
I came by train, through fear and strain.
She hailed from cities far and wide,
A nurse, on duty, time denied.
But just today, for half an hour,
She’d slip from work’s unyielding tower,
And meet me by this concrete gate,
Where pulse and platform danced with fate.
“Gate Four,” I said. “I’m here. Waiting.”
She whispered back, “I see you. Wait.”
My eyes spun fast through faces blurred,
My chest beat loud with love unheard.
Then there she stood — not far, but near,
In steps that wiped away the year.
I thought, “She’s tall.” My throat went dry.
But closer now — we matched in eye.
She didn’t speak — just took my hand,
And led me through this foreign land.
Across the road, beneath the sky,
Our silence hummed a soft reply.
She bought me food — a chicken thigh.
(Though she eats none. I wondered why.)
We sat, she watched, I tried to speak —
But time was short and words were weak.
“I have to go,” she said at last.
And just like that, the moment passed.
No kiss, no vow, no sweeping song —
Just fingers held a moment long.
She turned and walked back to the light,
A nurse again in white and night.
And I — I rode the metro home,
Still feeling less alone, alone.
That evening, after duties done,
We typed the things we’d left unsung.
And somewhere in that crowded thread,
She softly said, “You held my hand.”
The clock moved on. The dreams, they stayed.
A new day dawned, but I replayed
That half an hour — a fleeting grace
When time stood still, and I saw her face.
- THE END -
© 2025 June, Hasanur Rahman Shaikh.
All rights reserved.
Jun 5, 2025
Jun 5, 2025 at 5:38 AM UTC
It's in the way he smiled at me when we first met
Nothing special about his smile but the chipped tooth
The way those eyes tell a million stories and yet are so kind
He listens
I’ve never had that before
And calls me out on my ********
Because he knows I like to lie
He doesn't put people down for things they enjoy
I’ve never had that before
He respects my passion and lifts me
He treats me like I want to be treated
Because i'm sick of being treated like an ignorant little girl
He's nice to everyone and
I’ve never had that before
Even if he dislikes them he's compassionate and kind
And sees good within the worst
And although his hairs to long
And although his brothers a *****
And although I still feel judged by him sometimes
I’ve never had someone like him before
Safety
Love
Warmth
I’m not afraid to call him whenever
And I was already friends with his friends
He notices things, even before, that no one else does
And is genuinely happy for me
And i've never had that before
Never had the kindness
Never had the unconditional
Never had the best friend
But I guess thats because i've never had him before.
Apr 16, 2021
Apr 16, 2021 at 9:25 AM UTC
Like a quiet summer night,
it was—
or a gentle gust of wind,
and just as fleeting:
Their fated meeting.
Dec 12, 2020
Dec 12, 2020 at 10:44 AM UTC
The first day I saw him,
That was different,
And I start observing.
I knew that,
Not everyone in this world is real,
But when I realized,
there was no one real like him.
When my eyes first met him,
Like magic in his eyes,
And I lost it all.
I still knows it's the,
Best thing that happened.
When we talked,
Kindness in his smile,
It's just like,
As if the happiness ,
is just living with him.
And falling in love with him,
Was the finest thing that happened.
Jul 9, 2020
Jul 9, 2020 at 12:25 PM UTC
•••
Was a lucky coincidence, when i first met you
Was a pure sweet innocence, when i first talked with you
Started with a simple conversation
Flowing effortlessly without thoughts of any reservation
Never wanting to walk away
Felt like i wanted you, in every single way
Was such memories that never blemish
Made me unconsciously started to wish
For you to always stay by my side
Because the fondness is engraved deep inside
•••
Mar 27, 2020
Mar 27, 2020 at 7:49 PM UTC
All of my life I waited
For you.
Walking on a path sometimes,
Or wandering in a mountain wood.
Even escaping to the tropics,
To let the sun burn my desire for you
This way or that.
But each time I looked behind,
There you still were,
Not fully formed at first,
But a shadow.
Or sometimes light.
Then there was a sense
Of possibility, hiding in the air
That shivered around you,
But caused my course to veer
Ever so slightly toward you,
Like ancient footprints in rock,
Deciding for me.
I never believed in Fate
Until I met you,
Standing in the doorway
Of a cottage, outlined
With October’s warming sun.
I did not see your face then
But I knew.
And decades after
The same certainty abides,
Alongside any other gales
Of emotion or
Temperate joy.
Around you a brilliance
Hovers in my soul.
Where you walk
Beyond my sight,
My eyes still see you
And my love
Follows in your path.
Nov 9, 2019
Nov 9, 2019 at 7:26 AM UTC
This is how we meet:
It's a cocktail party, ****
big baby blue eyes and
the smell of your skin
lingering in every corner.
Out on the country lawn, we all
give whiskey kisses
and blanket smiles.
Tonight I'm lined with teeth and
you're bored out of your mind.
On the radio, a song plays
I just wanna feel something
.
Feb 10, 2019
Feb 10, 2019 at 8:01 PM UTC
Remember when we first met?
I wish we could meet again for the first time.
Jun 19, 2018
Jun 19, 2018 at 1:00 AM UTC
My attraction towards her was fatal.
For the realest things to come from her lips affected me in more ways than one.
You see truth speaks volume.
And the beauty that comes from her lips was more than I anticipated.
Feeling my attraction begin to rise.
I attempted to switch the subject.
Finding that we both shared the same amount of pain.
Adding value to each subject that rose.
I began to feel that there was more for me.
My self consciousness reacting before I could gather myself completely.
I felt a sense of liberation.
No longer the day I had at work, what I was planning to eat on the way home.
More instead how every other thought included her.
The respect held eye to eye.
The avenues of how her day went, the ins and outs.
The evidence that I found what I was missing.
And I didn't understand one bit.
I suppose it's better that way.
Stepping outside of myself into the crossway leading off into the street.
A dark backdrop highlighted by a white light of a bald man walking before it turns
A reddish orange.
Though nothing is as harmless as it seems.
I felt at ease staring into her eyes.
Stepping inside of her mind was like walking into an art gallery.
Her interests, technological advances all highlighted in bright and violet hue.
All in the span of 10 minutes walking in.
Mutually we both spoke with our hands.
We'd throw fits with our laughs, indulging in the philosophy of smile.
With morality aroused I instantly began questioning myself.
Wanting to know more I asked question, after question.
Anything as a means to have kept her talking. Feeling an everlasting peace.
Walking downtown in an abundance of space, I felt I could breathe.
But I couldn't shake that she felt that I was like most guys.
That at any moment, as comfortable as she was, she was still waiting on me
to give any indication that I was no different than the faces pointed down scrolling down their phone.
And we,
Like separate thumbs.
Belonged to different people
Trouble
Dec 19, 2017
Dec 19, 2017 at 1:36 PM UTC
That magic summer where we first met and wooed
fades further from us with each passing year.
The words we spoke are gone; the words' tune lingers on.
We'd tasted love--
sweet, imbalanced, temporary--
now longed for the same only more complete,
more complementary.
Intimacy comes easily to some.
Others store their feelings up:
treasure for those who can rightly claim it.
We met at a party for new students,
drinking strawberry daiquiris.
For me, the attraction was immediate;
a bit slower for you, you say.
We were wary; our trust grew quickly.
And we, in the confines of this serious trust,
at last could be
our own childish, playful selves.
We went to movies, plays, folk-dancing;
walked in Crystal Lake Park;
ate; watched your soap opera;
touched each other constantly;
fought; made up elegantly.
And then, as we sat on a warm stone bench
on top of that underground library,
eating lunch,
--heart in throat--I said:
"The pleasure I have known in being with you
for these six weeks is something quite unusual.
And if the same is true for you,
if this's a love which could lead to marriage,
then I will try to find a job nearby,
where I can see you frequently.
But if your love is of a lesser sort, then I
will cast my net this great world o'er
and go where Fortune takes me."
Then you,
not hesitating a single moment,
flooding my eyes with your radiant smile,
replied, "It could! Oh yes, indeed, it could!"
Much has happened since,
but I say it was then, that summer, that moment,
love reached the final, high plane
where we, though hardly conscious of it now, still dwell.
Aug 1, 2017
Aug 1, 2017 at 2:11 PM UTC
It promised to be quite ordinary,
that old student/new student/faculty social hour.
I had come to Champaign with high hopes a year earlier,
starting a new career (--and hoping to find someone to love).
Now, with just three months left,
my studies had been a success,
but I had not found anyone to love.
And now I was thinking beyond Champaign:
where I would go, what I would do with my new degree.
I scanned the faces in the crowd.
Mixed in with all-too-familiar classmates and teachers were new people:
A formidable, blonde-haired woman
with a big voice and a large imitation pearl necklace;
no meek, retiring librarian here; a Valkyrie.
A guy with wire-rimmed glasses in his early twenties;
congenial, but serious; he had studied engineering.
A girl; stylish, extroverted;
loved Faulkner; engaged to be married.
A sensitive, thirty-ish woman; recently divorced;
her ex had stuck her with a mountain of credit card debt.
And you, in a pink dress.
No jewelry, not much makeup.
Nice figure.
Very simple, very pretty.
A wonderful smile.
Obviously bright.
You had gone here as an undergraduate.
You had taught school in Iowa for several years
and now were back to get a Library degree.
You had grown up on a farm.
You were eminently lovable.
You were, amazingly, unmarried.
I felt that I was at an art exhibition in nineteenth century France.
Here was Raffaelli's "Boulevard of the Italians"
which had sold for 500 francs.
Over here Lecomte de Nouy's "Ramses in His Harem"
which had brought 1900.
And over here in the corner, neglected,
Van Gogh's, "The Artist's Room at Arles".
I felt like shouting,
"My friends, can't you see the beauty of this painting:
its simplicity and purity, its energy; the symphony of its colors!
You have opted for these smooth, conventional paintings
and left this one, the most valuable of all, unsold. . . ."
I felt like hugging you, right then and there.
You were number two or three on my all-time "instant attraction" list.
But I was wary -- so many others had not worked out, why would you?
Our first date was a "Streetcar Named Desire".
I put my arm around you during the play and held your hand as we walked back toward your apartment.
I invited you to "Bubby and Zadie's" cafe. You refused and offered no alternative.
I was devastated. So this, too, would come to nothing.
We would walk the three blocks back to your apartment. We would say goodnight.
I would go home and cry. That would be that.
But when we arrived, my hopes soared: you invited me up to your apartment. You really just didn't like Bubby and Zadie's -- and you liked and trusted me well enough that the intimacy of your apartment didn't seem inappropriate. We talked for a long time and kissed. When I left, all traces of wariness were gone. The coming weeks would not be ordinary.
Aug 1, 2017
Aug 1, 2017 at 2:07 PM UTC
Everything that I think about lately are Me, Myself, and I.
I have wasted a lot of my time to think about anything and anyone until the time I cannot even think of myself.
Right now, all I need is just a solitude.
On a green grass field I’m lying down.
I’m looking at cotton-like cloud above me.
It’s so white, it refreshes my ***** mind.
I’m looking at the bright-blue colored sky. So blue,
It makes me think, “is it sea or ocean that I’m looking at?”
I’m looking at the biggest star in the world: Sun.
It’s so bright it makes me squint my eyes.
Wait, why am I seeing two suns?
They are both bright and warm:
I can feel the warmth of one sun on my skin– it melts my sweat. and ridiculously
I feel another sun’s warmth in my eyes– it melts my heart.
Am I going crazy?
It’s impossible if earth has two suns.
Unless, the other sun is called ‘you’.
It’s possible.
Ah,
I’m so pleased to meet you,
Mr. Sun of the green grass field.
Feb 15, 2016
Feb 15, 2016 at 8:47 AM UTC
I have never felt this way before,
Like I am on top of the universe.
That I am filled with love,
More love than what fits in a purse.
I am taken over by love,
In more ways than I can say.
My love for you continues to grow,
Every single day.
From that moment that we kissed,
I felt instantly connected to you.
And everyday since that day,
I have and will always say,
I LOVE YOU
Aug 21, 2015
Aug 21, 2015 at 9:02 PM UTC
This is how i remember it...
The first time that i saw her
was on the 14th day of July.
It has been exactly one year
since the day i laid my eyes
on this beautiful girl
and on that day
I knew exactly what love
looked like.
Love wore a red plaid shirt and
a red bandanna.
Love took my breath away.
I just knew that
I had to know her name.
Moments passed,
I finally gained the courage to
ask Love to join me.
Then there i was,
Staring at Love,
as if I couldn't believe
that she's finally here
after years of searching for her.
Love reached out her hand,
opened her mouth,
and said her name.
Right there and then, I knew that Love has entered my life.
Jul 13, 2015
Jul 13, 2015 at 8:07 PM UTC
His fingers wrap tightly around his cup,
shaking, tingling, raising it to his lips often,
the white frothy coffee drink steaming
while his tongue ignores the intense heat.
She plays with straw and the cardboard cup,
letting the heat of the black coffee
ease the tension between her fingertips
and seep down to each of her toes.
She smiled at him, observing each detail
that she loved about his appearance.
He sincerely laughed at every word she said,
looking deeply into her ocean eyes at every chance.
His white drink remained in his cup
as he carefully took sips to relax his nervouseness,
but she slopped her dark grinds, spilling them
over the edge and permanently staining the white.
The cups, at first sight, seemed to describe their personalities.
And yet, at a deeper second look, described their demeanor.
On the outer appearance, he was put together and cautious,
with a plan for his entire future,
while she was messy and without a care for what's next,
oblivious to her own wreckage.
But on the insides, both were bitter-sweet coffees,
happy to finally see eachother after so long,
but nervous because of their unresolved last encounter.
He was pure, curious white. She was dark, mysterious black.
Totally opposite and yet perfectly compatible.
Neither admitted one missed the other,
yet they promised to meet every summer and winter forever.
Aug 26, 2014
Aug 26, 2014 at 4:18 PM UTC
So I walk as I stared on my path
As your beautiful lips moves around
As your sparkly eyes stares
Well the tree is kind of far away
But it takes seconds as the steps i took with you
I guess your eyes hypnotised and they didn't care about my tears
Your broad chest stand there proudly
Just like the first song on the chapel
Just like the first word out of a baby's mouth
Just like the first flight that I did
Just like the first time I met those eyes
Apr 11, 2014
Apr 11, 2014 at 7:47 AM UTC