As Ever

So I'll regret it. But lead my heart to pain.
Return, if it is just to leave me again.

"Till death do us part". Come for their sense of us...
For Belief's sake, let appearances remain.

Not for mine but for the world's sake come back.
They ask why you left? To whom all must I explain?

I laughed when they said our time was running out--
I stirred the leaves in the tea i'd brewed to drain.

An era's passed since the luxury of tears --
Make me weep, let blood know its rain.

Still beguiled with hopes of you, the heart is lit.
To put out this last candle, come, it burns in vain.

-Agha Shahid Ali