She

(1)

In a hamlet far away from the city:

A hut –

She –

What was she like?

(2)

What was she like?

She –

She was stroking her hair,

Her hair was long and black,

Her hair plunged over her shoulders,

Her locks were braided with bright ribbons,

Why? –

To keep the stiff sea breeze from tossing curls on her face;

(2)

Her attire suggested of her rebellious wardrobe,

Her honey-sweet lips were blossom soft,

Her slender waist was narrow like a wasp,

Her voluptuous bends of her hips,

Her glossy skin,

Her slender eyebrows,

Her velvety eyelashes,

(3)

She –

She has been carved out by the Creator

who sculpted her out of care

just like a potter sculpts a pot from raw clay;

(4)

But –

She –

She was like the lonely kite in the sky – afloat yet unsure,

On full moon nights and when the nights were long,

She yearned for her faithful paramour,

He wasn’t here this time around,

Why? –

He was there where he was supposed to be,

She said:

You were here and then you weren’t,

She now hears his voice in the wind,

And – now,

When it blows, it caresses her in his absence.

© Sabah