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.
lying
on the beach towels
sunburnt nudes
in a vintage
Playboy
Christina Chin / M. R. Defibaugh
cresting waves
she tells him how
rough she likes it
doing a cartwheel
before the surf
M. R. Defibaugh / Christina Chin
he fans her with
the wine menu
after a swim
and a cold shower
still feeling hot
M. R. Defibaugh / Christina Chin
pretty bobbies
in an updo hairstyle
removing pins
the night falls
down to her waist
Christina Chin / M. R. Defibaugh
picotee edge
white amaryllis
on her lacy lingerie
untying the ribbons
with his teeth
Christina Chin / M. R. Defibaugh
grind the Saginaw and feather the six
it’s a trip to the urologist
in your ‘69 Chevy Blazer
a wreck that needs a lot of money thrown at it
money you don’t have
the light turns green
you jiggle the three-on-the-tree into first
ease out on the clutch and pray it will catch
there was a time when this heap was new
there was a time when her paint glistened
there was a time you were proud to drive her
you grind that ten spline Saginaw into second
feather the worn out inline six
until it smokes and squeals and smokes some more
at seventy they’re stripping your dignity away
sticking fingers and probes up your ass
asking if you know what year it is
asking you if you get enough to eat
You fiddle the shifter into third
And check the speedometer even though it broke years ago
another half a mile to go on this two-lane
and then you merge onto the big road
where the heavy traffic moves fast
because everybody thinks
they can catch up to some unassailable self-worth
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.
FATHER AND SON
by Akinnmade Abayomi Zeal
HE traipses in with a souring countenance
and glinting eyes
Having survived jeers and taunts of the wealth drunk
mates
He nurses the bruises of his bullied legs
'Life has gone askew', he bawled at himself.
'The world has wrenched away from its roost and doused.
While I was more child than now, the world finds peace with me
We used to smoke our candies and lollipops
We were fraternal with different twain.
We bathe in dust side by side with love
And hatred finds its place beneath the soles of our boots .'
He comes away from his eavesdropping
To school the grudged hapless son :
'Peace! Be still! Steel yourself from grim I plea
I have found a remedy to your woes.
At Better Days College!
You will no longer bandy with your betters!
There you will be gorged with love and clemency.'
Numbed and stupefied he looks.
' Why Better Days?'
I have learnt to love here!'
'I had known that you might know no peace there
I had known that you flock there with your betters,
People of higher race and grace
People of luck with less love for your people
People whose colour of their eyes makes them betters
People whose saves are bloated!
I only took a risk!
I knew you will find no love but lost.
I knew your meager twain will wane you.'
'But why Daddy?'
Why should all this be in being?'
'The world has tilted scrupulously I tell you
You cannot know even full peace at Better Days College.
Not anywhere in the world.
Peace cannot romance with men as beast as they are!
Unlikely my Boy! Unsusceptible!
Less the day these classes are crushed
and made obsolete,
Less these colours of our skins are mere flesh
When men eschew their source and swim into one another,
Less that our worths make us not any better than our peers.'
I affirm :
'Peace for men will be hatred!'
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.
