Knots in the rainbow

a poem by Suboor Usmani

As fresh morning wind wafts out of forgotten hours
I realize the treason done to life
In the turbulent time, months went glimmering by
Blinding me, binding me
To the irrational, persistent, infancy of music
How often I shivered in the passion of attention
A smouldering heart, an unspoken rage
There were knots in every rainbow
Shadow was substance; chaff and grain were the same
Life was a smoke that warped my sight

Hours that prances as the heirs of crime
The autumn that came in the guise of spring
A life in vain, a journey with no destination
I remember the silence of a nearing funeral
The flute that stopped in the shrillness of noise
The window gawks blankly into the void
No remembrance to caress, not a solitary golden gleam
All memories mutilated and faded beyond recall

The curtain falls, the play is over
Nothing remains finally of what one time was all
Let it be buried where it fell, far from the nurturing sun
As I revel in the peace of a great release
For the first time the sun seems glad to set
After a long time the winds are playing my favourite tune
After a long time the rainbow is full again