Taufiq Abdul Khalid - 1 Poem

N Ode 2 Hu

I am lowborn, who will raise me?
I am highborn, who will bring me down?
I am rude, who will teach me manners?
I am vain and proud, who is oft-bearing with me?

I am in love, who is in love with me?
I am yearning, who is yearning for me?
I am ablaze, who will quench the fire?
I am drowning, who will drain the ocean?
I am dying, who shall bury me?

I am a bird, but who gave me wings?
I am the sky, but who painted me blue?
I am a face, but who taught me to smile?
I am a prose, but who is the poet?
I am a lantern, but who is the light?

Who is asking? Who is answering?
What am I? Who am I?
Like a shadow on the wall?
Like a ripple in the ocean?

I am coming home, but who am I returning to?
Was I ever away?

Biography: Taufiq bin Abdul Khalid is a solicitor working in a small law office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has a son named Mikhail (aged 7) who dreams of becoming a venture capitalist. In his younger days, a girl once described Taufiq as someone who can take three hours to describe an orange. Now much older, he spends less time contemplating fruits and more time observing this strange and beautiful world, and the amazing personalities that inhabit it. He blogs obsessively in the Sinners’ Almanac and is a master ping-pong player. Or so he claims.