Arriving Before The Voice

This ghazal explores the liminal space between sleep and waking, presence and absence. As the beloved departs, the world subtly slows, yet their voice continues to arrive first—unbound by distance. It is a poem about clarity that survives separation.

Neither sleep confined me, nor waking showed a way,

My heart got lost in you, in echoes that stay.

You left—and the city began to breathe slower,

A window’s light trembled under forgetting’s cover.

Wherever I went, your voice arrived ahead,

Like a wet mirror waiting behind a wall I’d dread.

Though distance fell between us, sharp and wide,

You stayed beyond the doubt—clear, luminous, alive.