5
                   a
               e      r
           y             s

since I joined hello
a larva with a torn soul
Clinging to Whatever's left of life

since I started scratching for light
Peeking at the  deeming tunnel
but still hoping

since I started dinning with poets
eating haiku in the morning
drinking sonnet in the afternoon
feeling the aching agony of the broken in the evening
falling in love with the dreamers at night

Since my heart was pounded
wrecked and left with unspeakable pain

Since Born was birthed
a crawling character that was literally dying
but still screaming for hope, love and dream

Since Ismael Ibrahim aka Born
stopped existing
and started living

People walk on by and only glance in my direction
unaware that I am suffering from a deep rooted infection.
For don't you see that I'm painfully dying
and in the future you'll know that I could've been saved,
all it took was a simple moment of trying
and to hear the things that I always craved.

They tell you a drowning man will drag you down
but I've always been a strong swimmer,
we can easily take on another pound
just focus on the waves surfing glimmer.
Keep going, keep rowing,
don't inhale that salty sea.
The wind's blowing, exhaustion is showing,
I'll hold you up even when you can't hold me.

People walk on by and only glance in my direction
they aren't the slightest bit shocked at my self inflicted dissection.
For I desperately need to remove my organs of rot,
these days feeling just takes too much of a toll on me,
and they're so badly damaged that no customer has bought,
even when I offered them up for free.

They tell you a drowning man will drag you under
but I've always been gifted with a swift stroke,
how I made it out this far truly is a wonder,
or maybe just another sad tasteless joke.
Keep going, keep towing,
don't you give up so easily.
The wind's blowing, pace is slowing,
I'll hold you up even when you can't hold me.

So call me Ismael 'cause I'm lost at sea,
was caught up in a current very swiftly,
and my white whale has lost all interest in me,
I guess there's some other place it would rather be,
than stuck in my sad excuse for company.
Do I glimpse land's salvation or am I just succumbing to insanity?

If I worship more than arch angel but don’t love
I have nothing
If I give all I have to the poor, but don’t love
I have nothing
If I have faith which moves mountains,but don’t love
I have nothing
If I give gold in  alms as big as Ohad but don’t love
I have nothing
If I die  circumambulating the Kaaba, but don’t love
I have nothing
If I die fighting  in the holy war, but don’t love
I have nothing
If I die and buried in the tomb of prophet but don’t love
I have nothing
If I get land larger than Solomon’s Kingdom,but don’t love
I have nothing
If I receive God’s healing power like Christ but don’t love
I have nothing
If I am given un paralleled patience like Ayub but don’t love
I have nothing
If make sacrifice like Ismael and Hussain but don’t love
I have nothing
If I am given the kingdom of whole world, but don’t love
I have nothing


No matter what  I have done, no matter what will  I do

Without  wings of love, I cannot soar in the kingdom of God

Vincent Boykin I admire your courage in writing about Love in a serious relationship with the spiritual. It's shows your heart and that you understand Love. Love is usually just some word in the cosmos. Love bonds everything in good. Love. Super Poem! It's how I took it. It made my day. Thank you.
Demelia Denton An amazing poem Matloob .... Enchanting ...beautifully worded
Michele Vizzotti-White I like the fast pace of it, but it still is rich in thought/words

The smoking wreckage is where once stood
our humble family home.
I am the sole survivor.
Everyone else is gone.

As I wander through the ruins,
I spy a little shoe.
It is the only thing remaining
of my brother who was Two.

My family has been murdered,
by your mutual hate.
When slaughter is indiscriminate
Peace will come too late.

The holy land? What holy land?
From the river to the sea
This has become the ****** land
And I? A refugee.

Though genetically indistinguishable;
Semites one and all.
Ismael will ****** Isaac
Or Ismael himself must fall.

IF I LOVE NOT, I HAVE NOTHING
MATLOOB BOKHARI


If I worship more than arch angel but don’t love
I have nothing
If I give all I have to the poor, but don’t love
I have nothing
If I have faith which moves mountains,but don’t love
I have nothing
If I give gold in  alms as big as Ohad but don’t love
I have nothing
If I die  moving around the arc of covenant, but don’t love
I have nothing
If I die fighting  in the holy war, but don’t love
I have nothing
If I die and buried in the tomb of prophet but don’t love
I have nothing
If I get land larger than Solomon’s Kingdom,but don’t love
I have nothing
If I receive God’s healing power like Christ but don’t love
I have nothing
If I am given un paralleled patience like Ayub but don’t love
I have nothing
If make sacrifice like Ismael and Hussain but don’t love
I have nothing
If I am given the kingdom of the world, but don’t love
I have nothing
No matter what I have done, no matter what will  I do
Without  wings of love, I cannot soar in the kingdom of God
Natasha Nabokov: reading your poems, I am reminded of Tagore who is my first love

Angela Davis :matloob, your work is so amazing!

Laura Luce del:Hello  Matloob Thanks.,  Its an amazing, understandable & great write. I hope you are blessed throughout the rest of yoir life. Never stop writing! ♡LLM


Vincent Boykin: I admire your courage in writing about Love in a serious relationship with the spiritual. It's shows your heart and that you understand Love. Love is usually just some word in the cosmos. Love bonds everything in good. Love. Super Poem! It's how I took it. It made my day. Thank you.
Demelia Denton: An amazing poem Matloob .... Enchanting ...beautifully worded
Michele Vizzotti-White: I like the fast pace of it, but it still is rich in thought/words


Fay Slimm: Ah - - how true are these words Mat. - love is all we need and nothing more. An inspiring read.


Seyed Mohammad Reza Parhizgar : this is why you are called Matloob, but I have something better than love, and that's God.thanks dear friend I loved your poem.

Sara Fielder: I agree, love should be the motivating factor in everything we think, do, and say. The world would be a better place if we all remembered that.

    
Stephen Montgomery : My favorite line is:  all   I can sense the cogs turning in this sincere post which has come to an understanding; Love must be everything because love conflicts with nothing. Hold everything sacred and nothing suffers

I wouldn't want you to think that being in employment is the be all and end all
it appears at times to me to be more of an egress and less of a process for moving ahead.

If I dwell in this house that the Lord calls a home why do I work like a dog and get only a bone?

and self respect is I suspect a confidence trick
self induced to make you stick to a plan.

life may be shiny and bright but in everyone's future you'll find there's a night and
one that could last for years

agony to stay
more pain if I go
work should come with a government warning that earning below the living wage is just one more step and you fall off this page.

no shame in pleading poverty
that's what society is built on,
the poor and the helpless who search for a process and find only an egress and unless I'm mistaken are pushed away from the *** where those who have the lot are laughing into their kedgeree
society is also built on fish bones and the dead bodies of quails

Noah sails into the distance
and sensing no resistance
sinks
the Ark.

First may I apologize for
The womanizing,
And
The shallowness.

Call me Ismael

I went whaling once.
Not -- on the high seas
But, at Big D’s, Gillys.

I went downtown, and around town
Trying to -- get down.

I needed a Moby to my ****.
So I went searching.
For the meanest, biggest, foulest fish in the sea
And there are plenty of fish in the sea

Trust me

And four or (fourteen) shots of tequila later,
She’d consumed me.
Like, Jonah.
I was inside her.

And the only way I could get out was a smoke
And I quit that **** years ago.

I woke up, my muscles hurt
My head hurt
My heart, still hurt.
I looked over and there she was
Lying naked in the covers
Suddenly, my stomach hurt.

As I hung my head praying to that porcelain god
I thought back to last night, and who’s lips I was kissing
I remembered tasting yours, not hers
I remembered your eyes, not hers
I remembered your touch, not hers
I heaved up, your memory, not hers.

And like that you were gone.
No longer did I pray every time my phone rang
That the phrase would be “1 new text from -- “

I had deleted your name in my phone.
The letters were just too pretty.
I tried changing the fonts,
They looked good in every typeface

Hell, you made Webdings look good.
So I had to tarnish perfection.
I had to delete -- perfection
And I sat there, head in the bowl,
Removing every last bit of -- perfection --
from my stomach. I smiled, broken heart and all
I smiled.