Shagufta Kashmi

I did not believe that you’d died from cancer.
No, you died the day when you first got the news.
But my eulogy is not about that. 

I am sorry I could not love you back.

The red flowers were in their early bloom
when we went out on our first date.
You could not keep your eyes off me
and I couldn’t keep mine off the ground.

There is one thing I’d like you to know.
If you feel like this pain will never end,
understand that this is never your permanent abode.

I had to let you go.

You see, I didn’t tell them how I had lost you.
In the back of their minds, you are pretty much alive
and we are both happy in our dreamland.