The Fount of Immortality

I wandered from

The oceans of the east

To the oceans of the west,

Wading streams and rivers

And deltas,

Dripping in mud.

A myriad of creatures swam past my ankles

And calves and thighs,

My hips and my stomach,

Some snapping at the vulnerable

Hollows of my skin,

Others intent on their own path

And yet others of such exquisite beauty

That I myself stopped, mid-wading, to

Gawk at their rainbow hues.

And so I wandered,

the entire worth of my being

in a sack on my back

and my rags disintegrating one

by one

and, I sipped here,

and I sipped there, and

I asked every child and woman and man,

Every aged wanderer who crossed my path

Of the fount of

Immortality,

And some said look here

And others said look there

And yet none could truly give me

An answer of any worth.

And after long ages of my search

I sat upon a barren rock in the wilderness,

Alone as far as the skies extended.

And in my despair,

Saltwater flowed from my eyes

And I sighed in my grief and my futility

And threw from me my seeker’s cloak

And bare as the rock upon which I sat

I wearied with existence itself.

And as we parted ways, existence and I,

There was a great surging in my

Heart of hearts,

The rush and tumbling and madness,

The roaring of a

New ocean

Like and unlike anything that had ever flowed before.

And that is how I stumbled

Upon the Fount of

Immortality,

By grace of which the wilderness about me

Flowered into a thousand

Fragrant gardens.

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About the Author | Haneen Khalid

Haneen Khalid is a full time dreamer, a sometimes writer, and an all-time cat lover. She works as a peace activist in Islamabad, Pakistan, and writes a blog at www.longwalksandrosegardens.wordpress.com.

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