Lovers that apart might
Reclaim their mastery over

Their wry hearts again,
And with pretentious smile

Might mask their wounds.
But you,  love! who departed

To sleep under the quiet grass,
That you may in solitude find

The peace with earth divorced,
Left me alone, a broken  heart:

Our promise of yore is now no more!
Nor can my weakened spirit peace attain,

Nor remembered love bring me relief;
Nor doom nor gloom offer me release,

Nor to any distraction myself give;
By divine chance we happily met,

And by divine plan we now apart,
As this year's grief teaches me in truth:

Consider the death of one so loved,
Merely such love's polite recusal!

                                          -by
                               Hakim H. Kassim.


  NOTE: This poem, "Requiem," was made in honor of my father, Dr. Hussein S. A. S. Kassim, written soon after his death in March of 1994.