The Audience Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

Today I am facing an audience
An audience that is going to judge me
Today I am facing an audience
For so many thoughts and deeds
Of the humanity
The audience is asking me
The audience of small children

And I have nothing to say
For in my world
And in my history
I find no story to tell them
I have no lessens for them
And I have torn into pieces
My quotes and address

I faced them with my blank looks
And with nothing to say
I stepped down
And joined them in their play
I asked them to tell me their stories
Fairy tales and rhymes

The spontaneous laughter
The giggles and the jokes
I joined their world
Which was not yet corrupted
By ideas
And by deeds
Unexplainable deeds
And misdeeds
Of the humanity

I wanted to wash
All those years
From my face
To be a child again
And I wished that they allow me
To join them
And I wished that they did not see
The beast in me

And that
I wished
That I play with them

The children
Were so happy
In seeing
That one of their lost
Kin
And one who was like them
Is back again
At least for a while