Afshan Aqil

AURA OF LIGHT

 

From the window entering,

With blue wings gliding,

An animated aura of light,

Small, exquisite, tender, bright.

 

Was it a bee or a firefly,

A moth or a butterfly? I can’t say.

I’d never seen a creature

More charming and gay.

 

Dipping and gliding, quiet,

Like a paper plane, light,

It flew up to me like a friend,

Benign, sweet and innocent.

 

Pointing at it,

“O look!” Cried I.

“ What? Where?”

Came the reply.

 

Folding its wings,

Alarmed and shy,

The little fay vanished

Into thin air.

RAYS OF LIGHT

 

A white path straight,

Leading from the gate

Of St. Mary’s Convent

To the chapel quiet,

 

Giving us a view

Of St. Joseph’s Cathedral

Towering high

In the Western sky.

 

On the straight path

Proceeding with joy

My sister and I

Gaze at the sky,

 

Untarnished, bright,

Like silver, white,

Like vapours dazzled

In the sunlight,

 

Whereon were spread

Rays of light,

Green and bright,

A fine mesh of lights,

 

Criss-Crossing,

Nimbly darting

Like pine needles light,

Sunlit, blown about.

 

A sight so exquisite,

Ethereal and bright

Made me tremble in awe

And adoration, pure.

 

Was it a pine

With unearthly shine,

Unplanted, unrooted,

In the sky sighted?

 

The path had more pines

Standing in a line

Gradually lowering,

Into infinity fading.

 

Sounds of devotions,

Gurbani,* bhajan,*

Bells and az’an*

Woke me at dawn.

 

I wondered as I lay,

What I had seen

In the form of the pine,

The white sky and the way.

*Modes of devotions

‘Aura of Light’ was published in Poetica # 20. ‘Rays of Light’ was published in Poetica # 21.