Fate and Destiny

By Nasha Khan

A single leaf on a tree sits

still

amid its own,

flat and broad like a spatula,

its veins bare and exposed,

a sheath of transparent layer,

the only protection,

against its world.

 

a simple leaf

with separate blades,

each a door

inviting the light,

to penetrate its core,

camouflaged

like al-Khidr, The Green One

who made Musa grow.

 

a single leaf sits on a tree

still, amid its own,

like a man torn

between fate

and destiny,

al qada wa’l qadr,

a fool, incapable of choice

buried in the soils of regret

oblivious,

like me

forlorn

 

then the wind blows

Nasha Khan is a freelance writer from California. She holds a master’s degree in writing from the University of Southern California. Her postgraduate studies have taken her overseas to study under noted writers at the University of Cambridge. She has lived in four countries, worked in two, traveled through a dozen odd, and lived to tell the tales. Currently she is working on her second manuscript.