"The Perfume Seller"

Those were the days,
The days that the laces were untied and the knees would graze.

The days that mothers would part your hair from the side,
The days you couldn't get to sleep no matter how hard you tried.

I saw them, they were like me, lived on my block and went to my school,
Their faces were still baby-like, and their statures yet minuscule,
The companions were so innocent, smiling with the occasional drool.

I looked forward to seeing them in the mosque on Fridays,
After prayer finished, they would head down the street with me, my ways.

I remember the days when their families were around for the occasional dinner,
The childish laughter, the games console was out, and everyone was a winner.

Then seasons changed and years passed as quick as a cheetah pursuing a fawn,
The infancy behind us, and a new expectation appearing with a brand new dawn.

They grew up, at such accelerated rates, starting the script that could dictate their fates,
First young and innocent, then tainted and intoxicated,
Such to the point I couldn't even say in some way I'd been related.

Such a life brought down any other rise,
from school, to home life and the companions demise.

When I spoke to them, I didn't even have the power to recognise,
The product for me was not beneficial, the rate they were going at I was not surprised.

I dabbled in the life they had become engulfed in; Then I realised my own fall,
I caught onto the edge, and hoisted back up in complete awe.

I was lucky I realised, but I don't know where they went wrong,
Now zombies to the cure, and ambiguous to the spiritually strong.

One day I couldn't take it no more, how things weren't as they were before,
How happiness was now hostility, and a smile was now a crooked jaw.

I went to their home; their parents were seemingly helpless and dejected,
I vowed to do the best I could, but my efforts were soon rejected.

They once were companions, but they put me to flames,
No not literally, as consequence I've forgotten their names.

I approached them and told them, that to their parent and life what a danger they posed,
They shunned me immediately; It was too late now, the hearts were hard and the doors were now closed.

A lesson I learnt about choosing my peers,
Would be choosing the direction in which my life ultimately steers.



Just like the Hadith: "The blacksmith and the perfume selling merchant",
The sweet smelling companion my saviour; and the coal-covered one a serpent.