1. I asked the houses about places now lost,
Though they could not speak, I studied their cost,

2. The wind played in them with bitter sighs,
With grey dust covering floors once embossed,

3. The scent of ruins is their perfume now,
Where children played in days long since past,

4. Pollination happens though the flower lies still,
Planets move even if hearts no longer beat fast,

5. Your pact with homes is not fate’s to ordain,
Despite hardships, new life again will sprout,

6. Like ashes, Khawalid’s old home remains,
The tilework and carvings wrenched inside out,

7. His head left bare of family, kohl stained,
Like a chewed stick, his soul is bloodied and pained,

8. The home you left bears no bitterness nor blame,
Only grief, if it could, your heart would have maimed,

9. You once longed for it when away and now shun,
Though its tomb is still blessed while you are not done,

10. Love is sweet yet also bitter pain,
Ask the one who savored it before disdain,

11. None knows life’s joy and misery before
They have fallen in love and then no more.