HABIBULLAH SIRAJEE
Habibullah Sirajee is an eminent poet of Bangladesh. Recipient of many awards including Bangladesh Academy Literary Award 1991, Alao Literary Award 1989, Jessore Parishad Award 1987, Bishun Dey Award (India) 2007 etc.. President, National Poetry Council, Bangladesh Fellow, Bangla Academy.
Sudhiranjan and the Morning Train
‘I’ve to catch the early morning train, wake me up at dawn’-
Saying so, Sudhiranjan stepped into the water.
This is Sudhiranjan, waves kiss his hands and feet,
Floral green motifs on the end of a sari dance in his view,
A pair of bracelets adorns
An ethereal shape supine-spread out in water, on landmass,
A civil posture indeed.
Waves rise and fall, rhyming with the steam engine’s shrilly call
At a distance-
A python hisses in every cell of the brains,
Swallows without compunction-all happy portraits, sonic memories
Nocturne, exquisite utensils cast in metals!
Behold, the engine has broken speed alongside the platform,
Holding the world within its carriages,
Pale visage rubs against the misty panes,
Sons and daughters, father and mother,
Languishing locks of hair, a feline profile exudes coital bliss,
Eager, indifferent.
Waves curb themselves on the ancient, timeworn ebony quay,
As the dawntrain slams on the brakes; from abysmal depths
Someone blows the compulsive whistle, Sudhiranjan slips down and
Down; the platform looks deserted, water sport terminates,
Sudhiranjan the aquanaut surfaces, rises Poseidon!
The Cop Reads the Newspaper
The cop reads the newspaper amid the din and the roar
Of Dainik Bangla crossing. His dead hours passed in a trance.
When