"REPLY FROM THE UNKNOWN LADY" (Reply to a poem by Saqlain Mustaq) Here is your letter - unmarked and unnamed "To an unknown lady" - the bemusing envelope, I wonder how it arrived. Inside, the script of a rover - curious about beautiful ladies. Words spill like a secret confession, a tapestry of lust and loss. I was just gazing at your torn shoe, you took it to heart otherwise. No, I never forgot you I too, am a poet of fleeting lovers A negative reply, yet not an end The letter rests now in my hands try again, I am waiting for another. "EXISTENTIAL ANGST"

I am sick of earth,
a disconnection of breath is all
to mail my bones in half-rates

for cineration is not working well enough.

Wrap me with bare dreams
see if you can veil my body,
I have loved on the December clouds,
no mortal can see me naked.

I am overexposed, I am as far as Chile,
I am purposely mad,
you can build a whole life
with only three worlds - I love you.

More fleshy than a pig,
earth will refuse my history,
did I ever live here,
once it had a cave named Hira.