The Child Left Alone Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

You are the child who has been left alone
In this cold weather and the noon
You did not know what a breakfast is called
You have dark eyes with a lot of moisture in it
Eyes that speak of springs coming from the hills
In the bottom of the hills
Some fish in the water too
Your eyes speak of your little desires
Like those small fish
Swimming in search of something to eat
Those fish are of no use
But in a battered village, add tranquility
Like your desires
The sun penetrates the mulberry tree
With no leaves, like you dark limbs
Waiting to be covered one day
With green leaves
The dust and the cold breeze
All those houses made of mud
The color of mud all around, has slowly
Appeared on your skin
The nearby cemetery
So close and where sometimes you play with stones
When you grow up, like your elders
You will have nothing to think about
But only to change
And to change what you know not
The schoolmaster, who has already given up
All hopes…
That old grandmother
The only consolation
Sometimes in sweet tenderness
Shouts at you
To cover yourself
Drink some skimmed milk and
Some butter, on bread
You are again out
To return to your bed
That smells of urine and dust
You are a child left alone