the Breath That Follows Every Step

This ghazal explores the luminous ache that a beloved leaves behind—how their memory transforms night into light, how their breath seems to travel through the wind, and how absence itself becomes a presence. It is a poem about longing, memory, and the delicate tension between distance and closeness.

Night brightened softly as your name passed through, my dear;

Even the weary moon was touched by something near.

Within my thoughts, I wish I'd meet your face once more,

To rise on wings of love the way I rose before.

Your distant embrace still lingers gently in the air,

Wherever I wander, your breath follows me there.

O silent secret, filling all that I contain—

Without you, my world dissolves into pure, quiet pain.