A Common Man's Love Story By Muhammad Nasrullah Khan

I’m a commoner fighting the demons of bills, of food, of life. My meager pension enough to buy slippers and a jacket at a thrift store. Once, I sought stars Now I hide behind a trashcan of dreams. I am a statistic, known only by my photo ID. A bomb blasts and news channels read: Another sixty or so, dead. Death pauses eating but soon resumes her feast. I am a number on her dining table. I have no place for pride, crawling for crumbs of life with mangled hands. Years ago as I stepped through white moaning snow, I met a pretty girl taking shelter for a bus like a freshly feathered bird I snipped through white moaning snow. Her hazel eyes flicked towards mine. Snagged for a moment — ice on a stove. We loved in blessed silence She, a promised paradise. But pledges faded like colors of rainbow: purple, blue, yellow, and colors never seen. I slept there for a while, and awoke to wind’s sad song birds mourning cold reality tugging my naked dreams. Many years later We met again under that shelter She with her children Me with mine. She held mortgage papers I clutched my rent receipts We did not speak but smiled at how rotten fate spread over our lives a poor sketch of a tombstone — cemetery hidden under cypress trees. We lived between heaven and hell. Where once, we jumped in a sea of life and fell into commonness’ jaw. Stuck in the panes of sky I wait for God to open His door, and reply to my hungry prayers. Link: https://allpoetry.com/poem/16503782-A-Common-Mans-Love-Story-by-Muhammad-Nasrullah