Birds

Sometimes I'd startle something,

a flock of birds,

inside you

and your eyes

would ask me what it was.

Your body lifted

afterwards

and kept on lifting

like a fish

breaching the river's surface.

Fish and river,

you become yourself

when you transcend yourself

and if I dip my hand,

if I immerse myself,

it's for the life

that a river gives you;

how it startles your senses

into a drum beat,

like birds.

Featured here at the Islamabad Literary Festival. Published in A Brief and Biased History of Love.