The Pattern of Pulse

By Zaina Haque

It is a cosmic ritual, I suppose, 

for opposite forces 

to make a home out of each other. 

Peace never arrives without pain, 

and beauty refuses to live without bruise. 

Like divine duality, 

it is contradiction 

that converges into cohesion. 

I mean, why is it 

that the eye can only notice a star’s glow, 

when the sky has gloomed? 

Why is it 

that the heart can beat on, 

even when the soul breaks a little?

Perhaps, that is the secret 

of the universe–

that true harmony 

is not the absence of friction,

but the intrinsic intimacy of it.

In the end, it seems that everything 

lives in a celestial balance 

composed of opposites and oddities.

A push and a pull 

that compels the world 

to stand upright.

This is the pattern that creates the pulse,

the reason endings bleed into beginnings.

After all, existence is but a destined sunset–

beaming, dimming, and returning

briefly yet infinitely.

By Zaina Haque