On a Photograph

On a Photograph

Ahsan Habib

30th March 2013

[In memory of my beloved teacher who is no more in this world]

                                 (1)

An embodied phantom imprisoning eternity in a moment

Ministers to minds pierced by the arrows of Time,

Opens a window through which they can see

The souls endeared now unchained and free,

Conjures up a universe constant and silent—

Where the clocks never chime,

From flowers doesn’t flee the scent,

The buzzing bees remain unwearied,

The silence singing there surpasses any melody,

Where many a story lies in mime.

                          (2)

Photos live longer than man; the photo-frame

Is not our forest, but conceives forests within,

The divine frame cannot keep us long,

Time sips at life, singing the soulful song,

Nothing lingers here except the name,

The mighty, and the mean—

All dissolve into dust selfsame,

And smiles stop with the very end,

But those in the photo-frame don’t die,

The dark-hair is as white never seen.

                    (3)

In such a frame now you are a photo,

The lips tell of your words unique,

Still the smiles are there even if you are no more,

The eyes in the frame still see the sky azure,

The humane heart do they show—

Dig up a mind mild and meek,

And unveil a soul, a unique figure to follow,

Now travelling into the world untravelled.

Drinking in the deafening silence I sit here,

With tears rising to eyes in full flow.