Finale

Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
—Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol. (1843).

In the lone dark house where men are mended
On the far side
Where things are ended
Virgins sing wide-eyed
Come death dear, come death come,
Come lovely, lovely death come

When you closed your eyes and disappeared
Love died
Life became hollow and meaningless
Death black
Deader than the doorknobs
Deader than the dewberries
Deader than dead

Where does it all come from?
Where does it go?
The minus the plus
The plus minus - Deader than dead

Words adrift upon the winds:
Nuages = New Age
To vast nowheres in particular
“Brouillard brouillard brouillard brouillard”

Time’s metronome blank

Rehan Qayoom is a poet of English and Urdu, editor, translator and archivist, educated at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has featured in numerous literary publications and performed his work internationally. He works with a wide range of archival and independent research projects and is the author of several books.