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Reading Autumn by Rizwan Akhtar

In autumn, life is like a broken sentence,

a spine forgetting the weight of its hand.

The stripped self,

now slightly crinkled sobs

seeing patches appearing on skin

like ink dots spilled on pages.

I imagined that you would emerge

from bibliographic reverie

as I browse catalogues.

Time has stopped without

stopping,

in the cold stack aisles

echoes cloister

from shelved aura

an embossed classic

flumps on the timber flooring.

But an occasional thud like

a memory, like a passage

trapped in its own story

that sepia passage illuminating

an ochre gallery rocked by

an archival silence

along with the beep of the gadgets

are our rituals of annotations.

Sometimes we seek refuge, pausing

at a line underlined twice

sitting over evening tea,

the flurry of paper tears

that stasis between bookstacks.

Outside, only trees stand like saints,

cover to cover,

unperturbed by the sere branches

love seeks extension after the borrowing

limit expires, in difficult times comes back.

I watch you stepping out

with a bag hanging over shoulders

carrying stories; we will finish

before checking out.

Meanwhile, wind unfolds its chapters,

the briefest is the longest

in the middle of a page

is a musty realm in which I

hold your hand,

there is somebody in the reading

watching over, in this thicket

of tomes this tomb-quiet library

the shape of dog-eared pages

bookmarks like a past buried

between our love-plot

gathering dust, some rust.

You can wipe it from

the hush between the shelves

from the prison of marginalia

the reader’s own decline

like a leaf overdue.

October, 2026

Prof Rizwan Akhtar – Bio

Rizwan Akhtar

Rizwan Akhtar is an internationally published poet whose first poetry collection, Lahore, I am Coming, was published in 2017 by Punjab University Press. His poems have appeared in prestigious international journals across North America, Europe, India, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as in several English-language international anthologies. In addition to poetry, Rizwan has published short fiction. He has also written and published flash fiction. Rizwan Akhtar has translated Urdu short stories and poems into English and contributes to the News International for book reviews and literary journalism.

This section: Rizwan Akhtar – Poet, stories and poems