If I am the grass and you the breeze, blow through me.
If I am the rose and you the bird, then woo me.
If you are the rhyme and I the refrain, don't hang
on my lips, come and I'll come too when you cue me.
If yours is the iron fist in the velvet glove
when the arrow flies, the heart is pierced, tattoo me.
If mine is the venomous tongue, the serpent's tail,
charmer, use your charm, weave a spell and subdue me.
I am the laurel leaf in your crown, you are
the arms around my bark, arms that never knew me.
Oh would that I were bark! So old and still in leaf.
And you, dropping in my shade, dew to bedew me!
What shape should I take to marry your own, have you
- hawk to my shadow, moth my flame - pursue me?
The next line explains it. She is looking forward to the future; one day their relationship, if ever it is established, will be in it’s elderly stage. The writer is speaking of growing old with her lover. Elderly people move slowly and are often still and rooted. The leaf on an old tree could be a tough one that resists the winds of autumn that cause leaves to drop. Also, it suggests that his presence is what enables her to retain her leaves, a metaphor, perhaps, for retaining her youth into old age.
Ghazal