I've seen love
Glowing in my mother's eyes
As she picks up wet jasmine flowers in the dewy dawn,
Flowers that touched the very earth that had once nourished them to stay high above.

I've seen love
Rolling down from a mother's eyes
As she picks her lean child, bathed in innocent blood,
Crimson as the beetroot leaves he waited to devour before fate devoured him.

Before the morning birds came,
And sang their welcome song for the new sunrise,
I heard fiery chants across the eastern hemisphere,
Announcing the anguish that fuels their miserable eyes.

I've seen love
Piercing through the shrieks of despair
Wanting to climb beyond the stairs painted with disappointment,
Only to be shoved back in the face of obscurity.

I've felt love
Cracking my heart into sore lumps of agony
Screeching out from my soul that only an owl can reciprocate.
Humming the coos of a mourning dove.

At the dead of the night,
I swam through Archeon only to find myself in Phlegethon
Burning under my skin, drying the tears that were yet to flow.
Cementing an eternal flame to refine passion, fouled and rotten.

I've seen love
Peaking through the cracks of concrete
As a jasmine plant that once demanded the fertile soil,
The moisture of morning mist.

I've felt rage
Illuminating my ashed edges
Only to be hit on again
Harden them as shields against hurt, disguised,
As Love

Anika Zaman is pondering over questions about life. Email her potential answers at zanika369@gmail.com.