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
Imān: A Cinquain
Imān
Is a nūr that
You carry everywhere
That someday it may find you light
To bear
Act
Knowledge: it will get you
All the way to the gate
But you will only go through
If tawfīq is in your fate
You'll never know your fate though
Until it is too late
What you do is in your hands, my friend
And what you don't is in your hands as well
Thinking
Think before you speak
Khalid think before you think
So your thinking doesn’t reek
Of those thoughts that tend to stink
Root Causes
There’s a sombre note
In a root cause analysis song
To a root cause analysis
Of a root cause analysis gone wrong
Mouthward
Don’t put your foot into your mouth
To take the conversation south
But if you must, step in with grace
And mind the locus of your face
Shut Up
Careful what you think, Khalid
Careful what you say
The latter being capable
Of turning you away
For every single word by you
Is primarily heard by you
And courses through your veins to seek out
Cells in which to play
So shut up and have a nice day
Four Minutes
Freight train
Counting cars
One, two…
At first I thought it sad
That I actually had
Nothing better to do
One hundred and twelve
Got me thinking
It’s been a productive
Four minutes
Make it, Count
If the world is your Château d’If
Make it count lest
You’re tested with relief
On Retiring My Cardboard Box Companion
I still recall the day it came to us
A banquet spread within its cardboard ends
From kindly friends extremely generous
Whose generosity surpasses friends
We ate our sustenance from it that day
And then I couldn’t bear to throw it out
For its pronounced proportions found a way
To serve as stand-up desk for me somehow
For months it has endured my eager wrists
And offered steady berth to all my things
While silently inviting my digits
To tap their tips into a thousand wings
The blessings in a cardboard box are from
The generosity with which they come
