LOVE LOST-1. alone you had for me the words to soothe, you alone could touch my heart in truth-- i remember when you first kissed without a sigh, and that answered for me any possible why; you called-out to my soul for home, and i then sought myself no longer to roam, and ever since then i find you close and dear, never too far away, you were always near: no more! for you're on my lap no more! no more! so much alone here's sickening and sore! in the bleak December eve dark with wintry breeze, in my only thought are but images of you grasping, to caress over the fire in my heart, o! dream that never was, as i in my mind fall into unquiet pose: a willing casualty in anticipated dream that, with me, has become but a soul in stream-- of tears, of pain and love, of you, stark reality, an ever-flowing end too! ­ -by Hakim H. Kassim. (d. 2021)