In collaboration with Aziz Tahir.
Journeying deserts and oceans, tea leaves are a staple in our country. When you drink a cup of hot tea, the pieces of the puzzle fit and everything seamlessly comes together. When you drink a cup of tea, you take in the spice, aroma, galaxies, secrets, ceremonies, declarations, sandwiches, cakes and time. A cup of tea is not an attempt at entangling the chaos; it is finding and soaking in the brief moments of calm.
Here I drink a part of this universe
To find the universe hidden inside me
So many times I have closed my eyes
But there’s nothing that I really want to see
There’s no one who I really want to be
And unless I see it, I remain blind
Unless I find him, I remain full of lies
When there are intervals in eternity,
My heart keeps wavering on the brim
Where my lips touch tenderly
With the love that I am unable to keep
With the peace that always leaves my home
With the warmth that stays under my skin
There’s no end to my half-hearted sins
There’s no balance in whatever I do and see
There’s no way where I can walk freely
When stars fall from the sky and leaves wither in anticipation of spring,
My hands hold this cup that warms my soul
I keep looking into this void that fills my eyes
My face turns towards the heavens
With every pleasing and tender sip
That fills my emptiness as long as I drink
The sun slowly turns red as I keep looking
And my dreams scatter on the horizons
The sun always sets like my heart sinks
In the melancholy of each evening
That makes me to surrender my wills
When romance seizes the moment and sings a song,
The outlines of my heart are fading
And no more boundaries are left behind
There’s no end to my half-hearted sins
There’s no balance in whatever I do and see
There’s no way where I can walk freely
I may find myself before my cup gets empty
The world may end before I get to the last sip
When, for an instance, I jump off the deep end and dive into the universe. Enchanted by its glory, I try to escape and return to my cup of tea at the edge of that deep end, but the world may end before I get to the last sip.