ONCE MORE IN PEACE

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

The whole city is deep into sleep

During the late hours of winter night

Freedom is just on the other side of these Iron bars

Through these cruel Iron Bars I look into the unknown future

Uncertainty rocks me from deep inside like a sudden Tsunami

I can hear the roar of the mighty wave, as if they were the sound of my heart beat

Suddenly, my childhood, my boy hood and my youth project before me like the celluloid in a theatre

Only a few days ago; a whole year faded away from the pages of the Calendar

Just a few days back, my mother left this world, saying me nothing at all

Wasn’t I lucky enough even to bade farewell to her with my tears

In my distress moment, I look for my mother in my daughter

My mother is gone somewhere, far away from the sight, far away from this earth, even far away from my knowledge

All I can feel is the silence of the place where my mother should be in my solitary prison cell

In my solitude, in the unfinished canvas of my remaining life, I wish to draw the picture of the peaceful life we perhaps live for

In the darkest nights, I can see the stars rather are much brighter

But I see "the pigeon" being crashed in the claws of the devils

In the breeze can smell the odor of gun powder

They do not want peace! They want destruction, anarchy, they want human corpse

For, they are human like vultures

O’ the lord of the Universe! How dirty their mind might be, but, not mightier than you!

Let us all, children of Adam, Children of Abraham live the rest of our lives on earth together: once more in peace

(Amen)