Heaven in Your Eyes
Istanbul, May 2026
60 years of your life today
Wondering who you were for the 27 years before
Your existence revolved around the beings you created
The Cuneiform writing system had a numeral base of 60
The very first written system known to man
It feels fitting to associate this with you
As my life’s own starting point
The gift to be born to you
To be of you
To feel your love
A golden cocoon of warmth
Each dua you whispered
And blew in my direction
Each milestone you accompanied
Every watchful glance you cast
Heaven in your amber eyes
Gleaming with the currents
Of a gaze so pure
Only Allah could have understood
How to paint your canvas
Your grace shaping
The contours of my adolescence
The branching of my adulthood
All nurtured under the warmth of your wing
Of your wazifa
Of your tight embrace
The way each room bounces with energy
Upon welcoming even a single step
Of your path in its direction
Like a sunbeam cast above
Mirroring the gleam in your twinkling eyes
The reason stars align
The smile that forms on my face
When yet another passerby witnesses your light
And remarks to me
Your mother is quite possibly the sweetest woman I have ever met
My smile forming, not just because I witness this often
But also because I know
That the sweetness of you
Is a honey
That cascades even levels beyond
What their palate has just experienced
The joy of your giggle
The resplendence of your smile
The softness of your hands
That cooked meals from your homeland daily
So that even in a Virginia suburb
Your children would know the taste
Of the generations that brought you here
A bloodline of resilience, of endurance
Of faithfulness and sacrifice
Of love so enduring
That it led you to us, and us to you
He who guards his childlike spirit shall never age
An adage once taught to me in a course of French literature
But one I learned earlier in life
As I witnessed it through you
The saying if I loved you less, I could talk about it more
Is felt straight in the gut
When it comes to you
I love you to the point where words fail me
A feeling not often felt
By one who sees the world through stanzas
But my prose falters and my words stumble
In trying to express
What you are in my world
Because my entire world is you
Your love is a piece I hold
Lifting me skyward
Heaven in your eyes
Floating where the angels sing
