Two Pages Sent by Aftab Yusuf Shaikh

A letter has arrived
in an envelope
dark beige in colour
that smells of the sadness
in her apartment.

She has sent along two pages,
one- a message for today
two- an obligation till eternity.
‘Fair love,’ she says on the first page,
‘have we anything to fear
when they have announced
the death of our love?' 

Have we now anything to lose once they
finalised our separation till death?
We wondered how to reach
the doors of eternal life together
hand   in   hand.
And yet these people have
arranged a simultaneous death for us.
'Walk along, pride of Arabia,
I am with you in this long tiring journey.’

Two pages in an envelope-
on one she wrote with ink,
the other she soaked in tears.

Aftab Yusuf Shaikh is based in Mumbai. He has been writing from the age of eight and has since then published a large number of work in journals and anthologies. He published two volumes of poetry, namely Tehzeeb Talkies [2020] and Mominpura [2021].