Reclamation by Mohammad Talib

Reclamation

Something serious has gone amiss: don’t ask me what it is. The usual ‘lost’ is sought and found. My loss is different: it’s the ground that comes, then leaves my mind. I stand on it, but cannot find.

You shower affection tell me our connection; you bring back my past, but I hardly know you. Your tales of our past yield little clue. I sweat with shame guessing your name. Don’t quiz me please, something’s gone wrong: your name, my name, and where we belong.

I lost our relationship somewhere, somewhere I can’t repair. Your face is so familiar, so dear, but who are you? Too shy to admit if I ever knew you.

When you come in, I ask, ‘Who brought you here?’ But where is ‘here’? What used to be one is now so many. The name leaves the face and the usual place; their threads part company -

61

When I call them as one, I actually call none; they take their time to become someone.

My memory goes off and on; a stranger becomes a friend, but the known’s unknown: so the ‘stranger’ I saw was my son-in-law, but I called a walker on the street my brother.

The words we have known, the ties that have grown all lost in the growing haze. your help I need to search the maze.

You may be known, or unknown. Just hold my hand until I stand to find what went amiss. As others’ ‘losts’ are also found, I shall regain some firmer ground.

Mohammad Talib

62