Hurt people, there is no forever.
Hurt people, always remember.
— Fuad Ahmed
Buriganga River washes the feet of your sons,Meghna River bathes ankles of your daughters.
Do you hear your 17 million people calling?Do you recall various uprisings’ slaughters?
Does Dhanmondi listen to Karail’s wails?Does Gulshan consider Karail appalling?
In your steaming tropical heat, men escapeto the lesser swelter of gardens off the street
where Asian palmyra palms drape frondsfor shade where wet, sweating bodies meet
to play, the hottest part of the day made forjoining in adda talks, slow walks and songs,
sitting beside night jasmine while drinking tea,leaning into their fiery white-flower throngs
that leave pollen grains on cheeks and hairuntil friends reach up to touch, brush them free.
In an adda, they would solve world problems,understand the music of the spheres, foment
revolution and poetry, have love evolve to bemore than a human gratification of a moment.
In your night’s dark heat, in your hot noons,daughters and mothers care, clean and cook
for families and friends, absently sing tunesthat were ancient a millennia ago, then look
to see their children are fed, are taught, keptsecure from adulthood’s ubiquitous dread.
When will you be ready to save Planet Earth?Replace New York, Paris, London, Beijing
as the civilized center of everything? Whenwill your passion become the important thing?
Old as you are, you brim with beautiful menand women, young perspectives on old ideas,
softer views on stone-hard doctrines of faith,belief that loving touching overcomes fears,
and both West and East await your erotic risethat will put flesh again in Eden, dry up tears
shed because of this god or that, open a gate ofphysical jubilation, close intolerance and hate
to allow your tropic incubation of humanityto spread around all the globe and set us free.
When are you coming, City of Mosques? Forearly or late, high or low, young or old, pity
those of us who are a hurting people wantingghosts to go, haunting to end, aching to cease.
When are you coming, City of Mosques? Weyearn for your delta where love flows into peace.
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Photo via Good Free Photos