A Chance Encounter with Pain
A poem
If you feel my pain,
will your agonies wane
because our minds harbour
the same demons infame
or get more drenched in torment
because our minds fight
the same, endless demons,
incessant.
If you feel my pain,
will you offer me a hand
to steer clear of the chasm fiends
till the end
or contend that my trench
is not deeper than yours
hence I cannot avail the benefits
to reach the shores.
If you read my poem,
will your eyes dissect it letter for letter
and comprehend the pauses
thus trimming the facade to pieces
or flit from one para to another
skimming in a matter of seconds
the stanzas not of your taste
thus reducing them to embers.
If you meet my pain,
will you thwart its plan
to its territorial claim
on the pockets of my mind sane
or deny its existence
infirmity gripping, leaving me strained
digging a yard
six feet deep.
If we meet our pain,
let’s not become like ships
stranded and adrift at sea,
singing songs of pain galore
each claiming to know the way to the shore
while drifting ourselves away from it further.
Let’s be each other’s Zephyr
and not the Tempest.
© Rumi
