Poet-Today | Khalid Imam | The Arts-Muse Fair


WHY...

Why should l
Let you ride
On a lifeless wind
Of despair
When my wing
Is all the hope
you need to soar

Why should l
Allow the web
Of sorrow
Entrap you
When my care
Is all you need
As broom
To remove it

Why should l
Let you drown
In the sea
Of your tears
When all you need
Is my reassuring smile        
As a rescue boat

Why should l
Deny your dry throat       
Water from my oasis
When all you need
To be alive
And blissful
Is a droplet of my love


THE MIRROR LIED

Warn the mirror
To lie no more
This reflection
Is not of me
The dress l wear
Could be same reflection
And the cap on my head
May not differ as well with mine
Unlike the fake smile on my lips
That sharply differs
From the serious thought
I harbor inside me

If the mirror
Isn't a shameless liar
Let it cast
The true story in me
Like a poem held high
On a slate for everyone
To read

A liar is a mirror
Because
It is not my dress
Or my cap that is me,
The real me
Is the me flowing
Inside the river
Of my veiled thoughts


NOW I KNOW BETTER

Now that every day seems
To come with cruel loneliness,
Emptiness of smiles
Dullness of humour
Falseness of hope
Crudeness of reality
Hollowness of home

My search for sense, fruitless
My Odyssey to the oasis
Of happiness, endless

Oh dad,
Why this gripping fondness
Of you these days are so real,
And your memories alone,
Sweet and consoling?

Rest and rest well, dad!


----

Khalid lmam, a bilingual poet, playwright and essayist, is an award -winning author of eight books in different genres. He is one of the writers chosen by The Wole Soyinka Foundation (WSF) to represent Nigeria at the Study Abroad in Lebanon (SAIL) 2017 Program holding at Notre Dame University, Louaize, Lebanon. Imam, a member of the Board of Trustees of Poets In Nigeria (PIN) has published many of his creative writings in US, UK, Poland, Germany and India, among others. lmam, who is presently the Vice Chairman of ANA Kano, is also one of the eight Nigerian poets recently published in the Nigeria - Nepali Cross - Cultural Poetry  Translation Project in July, 2017. Imam is happily married with children.

Comments