RIZWAN SALEEM - POEMS

Rizwan Saleem is a Banker based in Dubai UAE. The thoughts and expressions detailed in his works are of his various escapades suffered through life, and of the profound surprise of having survived long enough to pen them into words. His poems and prose have appeared in anthologies Twenty Seven Signs by Lady Chaos Press, Self Portrait Poetry Collection by Silver Birch Press, E fiction India, Scarlet leaf Publishing as well as Colors of Refuge.

The island of shattered dreams
​

​The ebbs and flows
Cold winter winds blow
Across the oceanic world
No land to see, nor harbors to call
The loud silence of doomed souls
 Black gulls take to air
Round and round they fly in evil circumambulations
 No sound through truculent clouds
Of promised rain and storms
And what is left behind?
And what is forward for?
A requiem powers the sails
Sung soft and low
Come by night or day
By air or by sea
Come solo or in droves
But be warned that none leave
Your belongings packed before the journey was charted
With hopes and ounces of faith that were stored
Paper invocations floated back down from heaven
Have trailed here to be buried, amongst you
This place where God will never be
And no prophets or messiahs to set you free
Rank upon rank, file after file
Men with crosses to bear
Of mistakes and unfulfilled best intentions
Come hither friends and foes
A choir of unholy spirits rejoice
Usher to your new abode
Come by night or day
By air, by sea, or on knees
Beware though, that none leave
Because there is nowhere else to be
Welcome to you, friends
 To the island of shattered dreams
 
 

Rain on you
​

​Of all the ways that lovers do
Dreams and thoughts of touching you
How I could turn into rain
And pour myself onto you
My gray clouds float to your presence
Steal sunlight from the sky, and prickle your skin with a frosty breeze
Ignite Goosebumps on your slender arms
A premonition of what’s to come
No I won’t pour, nor drown in a biblical deluge
A light drizzle would simply do
For the unrequited desires that I seek from you
Evanesce my being, I fall down to
I’m whole now in a million drops
Delicate like sparkling dew
My first splashes on your raven black hair
But you are still so unaware
Oh my paramour but there is more of me
So much more too of you
The first for any man, I rejoice in my descent
How a fall can be from one heaven to another
And drips of me on your forehead
Your turn your face above to see
The Cimmerian nebula that carry me
I slither down to your sultry cheeks
Fuchsia with surprise and elation
Smooth as polished marble
Of a temple made for a religion arcane
Known only to me
And sizzle in wicked delight
Trills to your lips
The warmth of your breath fleeting
 Rapture so abundant
That is in rain
A peek of your pinkish tongue
Wanders out to seek a taste
A drop is captured in curve
And let slither back in its sepulcher
Inside you I float, running in your life blood
We are one
How I wish I could ebb through your veins
Like an addiction without cure
Drops of me all on you
Soak your clothes through and through 
Your curves accentuate my lascivious fervors
As I caress you further
To the flats of your torso
I slither and crawl
Tickle and feather, my touches to arouse
Till your legs so neatly parted
Almost finished what has been started
I slide and slide lower still
To your thighs and knees
Shaped with such feline grace
Your ankles, till
Your feet and toes
So perfectly formed
The places they take you
But steps so far from me
So slowly I roll
To my final demise
Soaked now by grass beneath you
I am life now in another form
Fertile with your redolence
I await another turn in eternity
To love you again
 

Autumn  (Acrostic)
​

​Alone
Under barren trees
That shed leaves like heavenly tears
Undone like strings
 Memories flutter to the ground
Now all my seasons are cold