TWO POEMS

Edvard Munch

Swimming in the River of Sorrow

 

I’ve written many words,

many words on rain, green leaves,

and breeze. Many words on

love, light, and loneliness.

On darkness, dust, and debris.

I’ve been nostalgic of sweet memories,

sweet memories of being greeted

with warmth, with love.

But when you want to obscure

your past memories with the ink

of forgetfulness,

when you tell the stories of

the innocent confined in the

cell of eternal gloom,

I swim in the river of sorrow.

I search the road less travelled by.

Nowhere is found the road

to lead me to the land of verdure

where woods are lovely,

and you listen to the song of sanity.

 

 

The Other Day This City Told Me a Lie

 

The other day this city told me an errant lie

That made me believe I was in a wrong place

But the city has by now changed its colour

 

I no more remember how you defined grief

How I tried to peep into your porous heart

I’d never thought of a different city to inhabit

 

No matter I was offered a kingdom to reign

I like to be ruled in the city you love to live in

The city where I don’t find you is long dead

 

Deadly microbes have darkened the blue sky

I’ll die many times to stop ducts of sadness

Sometimes I also want to live and die for you

 

আগের লেখাস্তন ক্যান্সার
পরের লেখাযখন ফুটিল কমল : ১
Mohammad Shafiqul Islam
Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, poetry editor of Reckoning, is the author of two poetry collections, most recently Inner State (Daily Star Books, 2020), and the translator of Humayun Ahmed: Selected Short Stories and Aphorisms of Humayun Azad. His poetry and translations have appeared in Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Poem: International English Language Quarterly, Critical Survey, Massachusetts Review, Stag Hill Literary Journal, Reckoning, Dibur, Lunch Ticket, Bengal Lights, and elsewhere. His work has been anthologized in a number of books, including The Book of Dhaka: A City in Short Fiction. Currently at work on his third collection of poetry and a few translation projects, Dr Islam is Associate Professor of English at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh.

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