If you come by...

by Rukhiya Faheem. (One of the greatest poems I've read)


My tongue has grown a rough red,
That color of prison walls-
It nibbles off punctured dreams
And burrows, leaving dust in my marrow.
I’ve grown fainter, but cozier,
For such lifelessness is rampant.

I’ve recalled too much, of us
In the span of a stolen bit of paper.
Carved several children
Out of a dense nebulous memory.

Contained all our decaying causes in a jar,
And let my cares rub over smooth stones
So, I could slip onto them this
Bitter taste of a prolonged promise.

If you come by, bring me, but one thing -
An innocent hollow night,
Which cannot be filled
To a full.