Memories of Iran
You were sleeping the slumber of ages
When I first saw you
Behind virtue’s veil
Folds caressed by zephyrs
Of a golden past
I loved to watch you sleeping, then
My innocence and yours
Reposing beside Khayyam’s gurgling streams
Beneath the emerald tresses of weeping willows
A sweeter world at our feet
Now, you are gone
Vanished treasure of kings
Fallen on villains and bazaar mobs
Swirling sands of an Islamic storm
Your half-remembered splendour
A fading memory
I so adored you when you slumbered then
Our pure, young lives, like lovers, entwined
Before Life’s grand banquet and Khayyam’s murmuring streams
Where, I wonder, if the willows
Still weep for long lost, love?