(In response to “Ne me quitte pas” by Jacques Brel)

Leave, be gone by day,

No more traces of us,

No more two of us,

Let it be buried two times beyond my grasps.

Even if it leaves an echo that does not return.

I want no empire,

Where my seat was being given to another empress,

Do not label me as one of the concubines in the harem,

Waiting to be pleasured and pleased by your presence.

I want no diamonds that are crafted with empty promises,

That does not offer me a place to be by your side.

I want no returns of text messages or replies,

No more updates of how are you doing with the queen,

Where I am no longer in the picture of your life.

Deep down in my heart,

This unstoppable echo of no return utters the same words:

“No more, it is enough.”

I should not have been soft-hearted,

Allowing myself to speak to you,

And continuously being fooled by what I’d witnessed by far,

I had clearly learnt that:

“Broken glasses should have stayed broken.”

No matter how I had shaded it with molten gold.

It will never be remould into how an oval-shaped glass.

It is enough

It is enough

It is enough

It is enough.

We had in fact amended the remaining pieces of us,

Found each other again but not an instant lookout.

If you’d come to me,

I shall reiterate this again:

I want no empire,

I want no glory,

I want no diamonds or promises that you could not keep,

But a genuine sweet kiss

With a touch of heaven, where the sunrise will stay asleep forever.

In case you could not,

And been accommodated by the queen,

Forget about me,

Forget about us,

It is enough,

It is more than enough.

Submit your short stories, poems, essays, reviews, and more here.

People are also reading these poems:

Your Purdah by Matthew Jerome van Huizen

Row of Lights by Malini Lakshmi Bai

The Missed Journey by Anuradha Chelliah

The Old Lady and The Moon by Sheila Ann Packirnathan

Cover image sourced from Thiago Matos / Pexels. The copyright of ‘The Point of No Return’ belongs to Ong Li Yuan.