Layer upon layer
Sheet below sheet
Once upon a time
History repeats
Me upon you
Old below new
You are no more
Neither is your home
But I am here
Tracing you on my own
Searching for glimpses of you
Old below new
In the cracks of the plaster, new upon old
In the lanes and the gulleys, a tale untold
In the courtyard, sunken below layers of street
In between buildings, I hear your heartbeat
In the dust-specked light filtered through
In remembrance of a memory I never knew
Layer below layer
Street upon street
Line below line
The code is complete
You below me
Tee upon tee
You are no more
But I bear your name
With glimpses of you in me
I am here all the same
In search of you
Old below new
My homonym
My humnaam
My namesake
Takbir Fatima is a full-time architect, entrepreneur and educator, and a part-time traveler, thinker, tinkerer from Hyderabad. Find Fatima on Instagram @talkistania and read talkistania.wordpress.com.