If my voice is not reaching you
add to it the echo—
echo of ancient epics
And to that—
a princess
And to the princess—your beauty
And to your beauty—
a lover's heart
And in the lover's heart
a dagger
From Rococo and Other Worlds by Afzal Ahmed Syed. Copyright © 2010 by Afzal Ahmed Syed. Used by permission of Wesleyan University Press.