Khalid Mukhtar

Word, like wind, cuts through you / Withers all but true you

Poetry

Ulul Albaab

· · 

There’s a pumpkin seed here in my mouth
And it has been all over I tell you
To the west and the east and the south
But it can't 'scape the brace of its shell. You
Can unleash the precision of teeth
You can buffer the motions of tongue
You can coax it to submit beneath
All the pressure from traps that you’ve sprung
Till the hull comes apart at the seam
And the kernel slips out in the open
As unbroken and green as a dream
(If you like pumpkin seeds I am hopin’)
    Ask the folks of the kernel about
    Their reflections on getting it out

Close

· · 


                         take him
                      as your father
                  to never feel orphaned
                and he’ll take you by your
                    hand till you’re thru
       but know he’s more 
    than
     a father
      was sent 
       to be 
        close 
         closer
          to
           you
            than 
             you

Keep Walking

· · 

Sometimes our search for answers leads us to
A clearing where answers do not live
We’re not to live there either, pass on through
To see what gifts the wilderness may give
This forest we call life is not so bad
The trees are there so we may find our way
To  lie beside the river and be glad
Ingratitude will certainly delay
Our quest You see the answer may not come
As sweetly as a flower on a stalk
But rather as a dusty path that some
Old seeker must have chosen for a walk
As long as we keep walking we are blessed
Because the answer’s built into the quest

Appointment

· · 

Hear me out my dear
It’s a simple plan
If we love this man
Insha Allah then

We will meet again
We will meet again
If we love this man
We will meet again

You can shed a tear
And pronounce a prayer
No goodbye for you
No forever gone

All that’s keeping us
From each other then
Is the roar of time
And the noise of men

We will meet again
We will meet again
If we love this man
We will meet again

Wedding Party

· · 

For little Noor the sound of laughter
Died away a moment after
Fireball devoured the room
And turned it to a fiery tomb
With Noor beneath a smoldering rafter.

One moment, swishing silver taffeta,
Mom and dad embraced and chaffed her
Sister, wrapped in heaven’s bloom
For little Noor.

Then, death! Lord, how the breathing have to
Pick themselves up from disaster
Every trial sacred womb
That bears them out to weather doom
There is no golden globe or bafta
For little Noor

Stressing?

· · 

Make a list of all your battles
Brew some chai, take the trouble
Picking ones you can lose
Where the loss is tolerable

It may seem a bit defeatist
But a wise concession scatters
All your seeds of careful planning 
Left to harvest when it matters

Cruise Control

· · 

How much longer do you have on this road
Will you make it to the end
Or is the end how far you make it

How much longer do you have on this road
Your exit’s coming up
You’ll know it when you take it

So Grateful

· · 

I often say I’m grateful but I think
The act of saying so acts like a charm
See all I want to say is that I’m glad
But “gratitude” can ward away the harm
If I were truly grateful for a thing
I’d fall upon my face and offer thanks
I wouldn’t find the time or rhyme to bring
Myself to publicize the sentiment
But on and on I go about how kind
The Lord has been to me in every way
While I am, simply said, out of my mind
With happiness, but don’t know how to say
  I’m just a self-absorbed and petty lad
  Who likes to say he’s grateful when he’s glad

Doing Time

· · 

Let this world be your prison
And time be your friend
Who reminds you your time
Is nearing the end

If you taste from it morsels
Of Paradise, bend
To the dungeons of shukr
Khalid, once again