Bengali Red


*Bengali Red 

Tell us mother,
who welcomes dawn 
in the rice paddies of disease 
sweating diamonds
like a slave-child?

What children fall on the shores 
of the Padma River and dance 

with their shadows 
before you order 
the cremation fires 
to burn? 

I was lost in blood, 
an echo of mighty burdens, 
anxiously dancing with swords
between my teeth. 
Mother, where can I find you 
performing miracles? 
There is a wounded tree on steroids
coiled inside my tongue.  It feels
like it’s been tacked
to the back of my neck.

Mother, who poisoned 
our secret rain forest,
Cyclops testing napalm?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


*Bangladesh has the real probability of becoming the first country in the world to disappear because of climatic conditions.  Scientist are saying the poor of the country will have to ask for asylum in other countries.  They have asked developed countries to begin the procedures to change their asylum criteria to accommodate the displaced, which are mostly Bengali.

Comments

  1. Thanks for posting this, Sergio. Hats off!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Arun. Your appreciation is really heartfelt.

    Sergio

    ReplyDelete

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