Poetry from Mesfakus Salahin

Mesfakus Salahin
Oh father

oh father, oh father of the nation
You are the Bangobandhu, Shaikh Mojibur Rahman
From the heaven make the garden of Sonar Bangla
You are alive in the slogan 'Joy Bangla'.

You have given us a flag of green and red
We are still under your love and shade
We shall never forget your contribution 
You are the father of the nation.

You have given us wind of independence 
We see in our heart your courageous face
You are the source of our inspiration 
You are the hero of the heroes of the nation.
Oh father.oh father, oh father of the nation
You are the Bangobandhu, Shaikh Mojibur Rahman.



Poetry from Imam Sarafadeen





Morning Dew

I sat down beside the tree

Talking to myself and and the surrounded bee.

Inside me, nothing shows but thy love

Turning and turning as the day rough.

Impossible possible, not my love for you,

Table for two is ours for true.

If your love is a prison, then I’m your criminal

Tag me around you and take me to anywhere tonal.

Is love not a beautiful thing?

Think of it, and tell me everything.

I am not ready for your preaches

tones that come by your inches.

Instantly, I wake up everyday,

Thy love comes to me as the morning dew and stay.

Poetry from Abubakar Auwal

Mother's birth/journey to grave

She died once more
After she was born. 

The husbands she married 
Were blind, since she gives joy. 

Her children spread;
Convolvulusly but not convolvulus. 

All her breath were shadows out. 
Not knowing she corrode in corral. 

Yet, her children were blind in proposals ;
On whom to titled a father... 

Since 70s, 80s, 90s, 20s, till date ;
All the cosmopolitans enjoyed her hood and goes away. 

May the spider-weavings of her children.
Fall out from their coronets. 
To rewind mother, back alive. 

Poetry from Abdulbasit Oluwanishola

THE WITHERING LOTUS

Our friendship was unique, kind and loyal
everyone wanted to mimic us
Friends from our childhood
We've been wining and dining as brotherhood.

We would dart into a dungeon together, 
We would fight for freedom & success
We supported each other like rhizobia and legumes
To fix our lives to this stage

Climbing each stairs, clearing each steps; 
We would laugh, and lay each other's
problems, to be shared and solved.
But, how come? We're now dissolved
I thought our bond was bound to eternity
But, he's blinded with money and disloyalty grows

He is greedy for gathering money
And we strove to secure it until our success
But he's a snake spitting out white saliva  full of spites.

Our stunning friendship like the moon and stars
has dimmed and quenched
Our white lotus was withering and yellowing
Our pure friendship ended with stain.


Cristina Deptula reviews Sanjeev Sethi’s new poetry collection Wrappings in Bespoke

Sanjeev Sethi’s Wrappings in Bespoke
Wrappings in Bespoke, by Sanjeev Sethi, stirs up a heady brew of thoughts and elegant language. 

The very first piece, "Snatch of Schooldays" relates memories of riding the bus to school as a young child. Our protagonist "snakes his way ... contiguous to the leadfoot" to find entertaining classmates as he boards. Written in elevated grown-up language, this piece sets a tone for the collection. The bus is a repurposed military vehicle not originally made to transport children, yet the protagonist finds his way aboard. 

In a similar way, other protagonists in this book find their way into and through spaces that seem not made for them, where they must figure out how to fit. The most notable of these is older age, a stage of life that challenges the poetic speakers on different levels. Several pieces, including "Junior" and "Practitioner" explore the self-perception of aging people and the tension between the joy of accumulated intellectual insight and concern over weakening physical bodies and waning energy. 

Thought, reading, writing, and academic study also loom large in Wrappings in Bespoke. Pieces such as "Movement" and "Selfdom" reflect this, and other pieces ("Avoirdupois" and "Navigation") speak of people connecting to each other (or not) in personal relationships through the language of study and research. Some pieces bring an almost mystical tone to the celebration of the intellect, such as "Leave-Taking," which references horology while discussing the fine social art of the good-bye. 

While rarefied in tone, Wrappings is not without humor. "In Twos" mentions corporate employees joking with each other about hearing their bosses "let it rip." Some of the older age pieces present the physicality of aging in direct and amusing ways. 

While some pieces will require careful re-readings, Sanjeev Sethi's newest collection is not unreadable and will be enjoyable for many people. 

Sanjeev Sethi’s Wrappings in Bespoke is available here from Hedgehog Press.

Story from Md. Nurujjajman

Riya and Tamal were very good friends. They both liked each other. Thus at one time they got involved in a relationship. They went to college together. Both of them were very brilliant students, the most brilliant students in their college. The results they achieved in the exam no other student could ever reach. They used to travel after finishing college. They used to visit different places every day. 

Sometimes they used to visit the children's park, sometimes meet on the bridge, sometimes get together at historical places. They thus became close to each other. They start getting to know each other. Riya was from a very wealthy family, but Tamal was not from that good a family. Tamal's family was only a middle class family. Over time they told each other a lot more about each other. 

One day Tamal said to Riya, "Riya, you will never leave me." Riya replied, "I love you so much Tamal. If need be you and I will die together." But it was only in their imagination, it was never going to come true. 

Their closeness could not be tolerated by their friend Kabir. He also liked Riya, but Riya did not like him. Riya was proposed to by Kabir one day, but Riya did not accept. 

Kabir followed them for days. Wherever they went, whatever they did, Kabir was taking pictures of them on his mobile phone. He also tried to find out what Riya and Tamal were talking about on their messenger apps. He decided to hack Tamal's Messenger ID. 

On the other hand, Tamal and Riya were unaware of this.  They went around as usual and Kabir followed them everyday. Kabir came to a decision one day that he would send their daily pictures to Tamal's messenger. Kabir sent the pictures to Tamal's messenger. When Tamal was looking at the pictures, Riya was with him. Riya said, "Tamal you take our pictures every day. You're doing this, right?" 

Tamal then said, "No, why should I take pictures? Kabir just sent me the pictures." Riya sees that indeed Kabir has sent all these pictures. Next day, after going to class, Riya said to Kabir, "Why are you taking our daily pictures, Kabir? I said I don't like you. Why are you not leaving me alone?" 

Then Kabir said to Riya, "Don't you know this Riya? Tamal asked me to take your picture. He used to pay me every day for that." Riya sat with her hands on her head. She didn't understand anything. 

Kabir said, "Why do you like Tamal? He's using you. He doesn't like you from his heart. He made your pictures go viral, because he will ruin your honor, he took the picture with me." Hearing this, Riya got angry and left there and did not go around with Tamal that day. 

Meanwhile, Tamal knew nothing about this. The next day, Tamal came to the college and said to Riya, "Hey Riya, why didn't you come with me today? You come with me every day. And even yesterday you didn't go for a walk with me. What happened to you?" 

Then Riya said to him, "You are not ashamed to tell me these things. You are a great big bastard. You played around with me!" 
"What are you talking about Riya?" said Tamal. 
Riya said, "I'm right. You don't like me, right? You should have said it earlier. I wouldn't go around with you anymore. You played love with me. In the name of love, you wrapped me in your magic. What do you want?" Money want money!" 

Tamal was shocked to hear Riya's words. He said to Riya, "Why are you talking so much, Riya?" 

Riya said, "I'm right, you paid Kabir to take these pictures, right?" 

Meanwhile, Kabir was trying to hack Tamal's ID. Kabir hacked Tamal's ID with the help of a hacker. Meanwhile, Tamal and Riya continued to talk. His friends started saying to them, "What are you seeing here, Riya, what are you doing, Tamal?" Then Tamal realized that these were Kabir's actions. 

But Riya was shocked to see the screenshot of the chat on Messenger! She gave Tamal a firm slap on the cheek. To Tamal she said, "Finally Kabir is right. You have finally ruined my honor." 

Tamal was shocked and said, "No, Riya I didn't do this." 

But Riya didn't believe Tamal. Tamal went home from there. Meanwhile, Riya broke down. She was being scolded by her relatives, her friends were shaming her, she couldn't bear it all. 

A few days later, Kabir proposed to Riya. Riya was surprised and said, "I already told you that I don't like you. And you and your friend did such a bad thing to me. How do you think I will like you?" 

Then Kabir said to Riya, "You have to make a choice. When I can hack Tamal's ID for you, ignite your heart against Tamal, then I can make you fall in love." 

Riya said, "What, you hacked Tamal's ID and made my pictures went viral?" 

Riya returned home crying without standing there for a minute because he did not apologize. Then she called Tamal and said she would talk to him. 

Riya apologized to Tamal in the afternoon. She said, "Tamal, it was my mistake. I misunderstood you. I thought you shamed me, I'm sorry Tamal."

Tamal remained silent. After some time he said, "I can forgive you on one condition. I must love you as before, then." 

Riya said with a smile, "Of course, Tamal. I will love you as before." Then they both joined hands and stopped as before. 

Meanwhile, Kabir could not accept this at all. When Tamal and Riya were returning home, Kabir with his friends stood in their way and said, "You love Riya a lot don't you. When Riya is not mine, she can't be anyone's!" and shot Riya. 

Riya fell on the ground. Tamal was then shocked. Tamal picked up Riya and said he will take her to the hospital. But Kabir and his friends did not let him go. They surrounded the road. They were smiling shamelessly. 

By then Riya had accepted death, before saying just one word, "I love you Tamal. Be well."

Short story from Faroq Faisal

Faroq Faisal
Once upon a time, a cat lived under a tree. The tree was the river side. It was a big mango tree. It was totally black. Many years ago it was grown here. It had given a lot of delicious juicy fruits to the people. People tested and enjoyed its juicy fruit. 

One day the cat came to live here. When the cat came and saw a lot of ripe and colorful fruits was in the tree. It wandered to see beautiful fruit. At first sight cat fell in love of those fruits. Suddenly a dog passed the place. Dog couldn’t see the cat but cat saw. Cat closed his eyes and waited fairly long time for the happening. The dog passed away, the cat thought. 

Cat opened his eyes slowly, spoke loudly and sprang quickly on the mango tree, because the dog stood in front it. The dog said, “Why do you spring on the tree? I’m your friend, don’t you know me?” 

Cat replied that you were not my friend, the relation between you and me was hunted and hunter only. Clever dog said to the cat that he was not an enemy. He also said, "When you were on the tree and the tree was full of ripe juicy fruits, you could give me some. We enjoyed them together. Sorry my cruel friend, I couldn’t do it for you, because I tried them, they were now sour." 

The dog looked tense and annoyed. 

"It didn’t matter, I liked sour, my mother gave me sour fruit in my childhood, you were with me, I enjoyed it very much. " 

Cat spoke wisely. "You are no friend, I never did anything wrong to you. I had a bitter experience, it was many years ago. I and my family lived in a village. I had two sisters and a brother, my sisters were older. One day a wounded dog came to our house. It said, "Help me and save me!" Mom didn’t want to help, but my soft hearted sisters wanted to help it. 

They said that dogs were our enemy, but this one was wounded. So it was our moral duty to nurse it. Mom couldn’t say anything except O.K. My sisters nursed and treated it. We got the dog out of danger and it came around soon. We were all happy and the dog stayed there continuously. It became our friend day by day. 

But one day my parents and brother went outside. Suddenly I heard a dangerous deadly sound, saw a heart rending sight. The dog killed my beautiful sisters. Would have killed me, but it couldn't find me.  Now I had lost my family and also my house. It’s happened because of your species. So I don't believe you! I hate you!"

The dog was ashamed and went away.