Sunday, December 29, 2013

Neaptide, Pepper-Bloom.


it's afternoon. 
no, it's midnight
and your hands don't reach out from postcards that once were pretty enough to make me weep in personal silence. 
they're filling in all green places with long tall houses
and the horses have all gone home
and the photographs won't sing tonight
wasn't it long and hard, the road of orgy, pestilence?

it's a monday. it's always a monday.
and there's always a stage
for the lady
and for the master

those weren't happy times and neither are these
black cars wait in silence
and bullets and bulldozers wait in silence
and tombs of love and hate 
have much to do
with the chimneys that never were
and petticoats with flowers. and real flowers too. 

do i remember the spiders that weave golden webs in guts of heart?
do you remember the waves of conditioned mercy as they smashed our lighthouse?
there's a bit of laughter stuck at the edges. look.
don't wipe it off
for the women from Arabian Nights will be sad,
very sad,
if you do.
i can almost hear their maroon sobs break on soft white shores
as parrots carry the last song of the world in their beaks 
and fly through the history of solitude 
to perish in strange darkness

i must carry an umbrella to the mortuaries before they trump all blankness
between eyes that whisper and tides that don't;
i must awake to see the night on fire
and the hallways awash with blood 
of sailors bitten by the ghosts of moonlight, 
by uncrossed signals, 
by broken skulls of wishing-wells,
by shadows of tigers that seek to join all unbearable dots
and by everything else that don the robes of the wizard
who lived on stale turnips
and on hallowed throbs
of a withered, unwelcome dawn. 

it's pure monstrosity
dreams prepare for the final Sabbath 
lips yearn for shoulders that ever were
weary soldiers yearn for the nurses of sundown to spread their wings and legs 
and roses stick to frames of decay.

there's a room where only you can enter
in there there's this huge candle, burning, for you 
to hug it and cry as it melts
it's a carnival.
it's beautiful.

ক্লীবায়ু





সুচেতনা শেষ যেটা পড়ে থাকে সেটা নারী কাঁটাতার
পৃথিবীর ডিমউইট মহাযুগে প্লাবনে পতনে ক্রমস্বর
সব গান শেষ হলে তাও নারী, উৎরোল
ফুল ফোটা শেষ হয়, সরে যাও অন্যত্র,
যে পাত্রে ভিক্ষাণ্ণ নেই তাও রাখো দূর সহজাত অতিরেকে
যে মনীষা অরণ্যময় রেখো করপুটে
যে অরণ্যে সঙ্গীত নেই তাতে খিদে ঢেলে দাও, বিষ ঢেলে দাও
সুচেতনা ক্রমাগত ফুটে চলো কবোষ্ণ ওষ্ঠাধরে, নিরাময়-নিকেতনে
আমাদের মনসিজ জ্বালাবে বধির আগুন উন্মেষে-উচ্চারণে
আমাদের কঙ্কালে নির্গ্রন্থ প্রত্নলেখ
এই বুঝি হৃদপদ্ম, সাজাও সযত্ন ভঙ্গিমায়,
তা-ও চিরসত্য, তা-ও অগাস্ত্য বুকে রাখি।






Tuesday, December 24, 2013

তন্নিষ্ঠাকে ভালোবেসে

পৃথিবী ক্রমে কমলা কিমিত কলামে 
সারিসারি আয়নার মতো পরিচ্ছন্ন হতে হতে মিতালোক 
হাতে পায়ে জড়িয়ে থাকে ডালপালা, থাকথাক
অথবা শিকড়ের ফাঁকে ফাঁকে আঁধারমণি, 
বন্দ্যিত হাইকু-তনকা-রাজতনয়া
আয়ত মদিরার কাছাকাছি কিছুকাল, 
কিছুকাল উদ্ভাস হেসে আলতো আড়ালে চলে
হানিবাল, ভিক্টর উগো ও আদিম প্রপিতামহ
শিক্ষায়তন তদ্দিন হেসেখেলে
কবোষ্ণ পায়রার নীচে বুক পাতে কোমলে সৌষ্ঠবে রৌদ্রচ্ছ্বল
জাগো, দেলগাদিনা
জাগো ইতিহাসি নারীদের আঁচলের ভাঁজে 
আমাদের বিতরাগ জারণে-ধারণে ক্লীষ্ট প্রসূতিসদন
আমাদের লীলাময়ি বালুচর - অনিন্দ্য নিরাময়  
কিমাশ্চর্য্য নির্বাক! জেগে দেখি
পরম আবিল ভোর, অথবা অস্তাচল
সমাগত হার্দিক সুষমায়। 

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Ribald Roses, Naked Ribbons


when i saw Pablo Neruda sitting in a train that stood in rain i was sad
when i saw three-headed wisdom turned heavenbound in askance i was a crocodile
when i saw dogs roaming in dogged streets on dogged afternoons i was fighting the xylem-phloem divide
when i saw Borges staring at Aleph i was blind
when i saw the silent ocean i saw my eyes afloat on the tides
when i saw you finding your way out of the labyrinth with your thread you were Theseus and i was a puritan
when i saw diplomats cycling their way away from the polluted catacombs and  into the guts of hell i was my mind
when i saw monsters fishing for love i was the thrall of Mameluke.
when i saw her swimming she could've been Ophelia and i could've been beastly horny
when i saw wolves jumping out from the creeks of Time i was an endless fairytale
when i saw the frozen children i was the bomb of god
when i saw the gods abandon Anthony i wasn't much
when i saw the Titans marching i penned the sonnet of yesterday's dawn
when i saw the moon in the cauldron i took out my knife
when i saw the Tarantula yawn i was my milk-yolked morning
when i saw the hunter i was the hunted
when i saw the hunted i was the phantom
when i saw Aristotle he counted my teeth
when i saw the oaks i was mercy, eternally blessed
when i saw Jeremy, friend, picking a dusty tune for the city i pressed a button
when i saw myself staggering between snakes and ladders i was the space between the blade and the neck
when i saw the cup of blue love i donned my kingly robes and ruled through a few epics and sunsets.
when i was born i was very hungry


and then there was sunshine
and the skies were filled with gold
and the gods were happy
and the demons were happy
and the cows were cows
and madhouses were on fire
and the food turned into music
and flesh turned into earth
and the earth was alive
and the earth was dead
and the bones were dry
and the pillars were toppling
and the dead were asleep in stables
and the alive were awake in stables
and the arrows were asleep in quivers
and the ships were asleep in mist.


and i had seen a lot of things and i had been a lot of things
and i shall see a lot of things and i shall be a lot of things
my hands are folded
my i-s are dotted
my flowers don't wilt
my pictures don't fade.

new alphabet of mind,
speak to me
sing to me
be kind
pull the trigger


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Mama's New Bakery

happy Birds flying
where do you hide, how do you hide?
one for the eyes and one between
certain happy songs of slaughter gliding
as moonlight slips through fingers
touch my shoulders touch my waist
waste me down and hoist your flag
between you and between i
one-winged children fly.
lions sleep tigers sleep and their ghosts sleep and the Orion sleeps too

it's a city

and it's a circumference

and it's Pygmalion

and it's onions that cry for crocodiles
and it's trains that cry for stations
and it's bronze horses that cry when the moon is sad
and it's a circus that's almost alive
and it's my cock between your tits
and it's a bullet for Camus, Albert Camus
and it's ants marching in antly poise before 
the creatures that lurk and prowl within you and without me
jump out of the shadows.

you see, that's how things run
around people
and people run
around more people
and i'm too tired
to write my golden words for the souls of old trees

winter gathers in cracks and creeks
soldiers gun down sailors for the sea must float in blood
or else the king will be angry
and Orion will awake
and the ghosts will awake
and it's night
and Venus must rise from waters and dead moments 
and i must be there to snatch her girdle

it's all chalked out.
i don't know you.
you don't know me.
certain happy Birds dead 
where do you hide, how do you hide?     

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Arses of Verses


Arse 1

there was a man
whose name was Han
who was fond
of the fishes of his pond
some were red
some were blue
and Han's friend Ted
Loved them too
But then came a guy
who let out a sigh
and ate those fishes
against their wishes
and let out a fart
for he wasn't very smart
the fart carried their souls
to god's fishy bowls
and thus they reached heaven
when the clock struck seven
Han was very sad
And grief made him mad
And hence he fell and died
For him Ted cried
and Ted died too
and this story is true.


Arse 2

love is so beautiful
that if you don't do love you are fool
love makes us drool
so much that before long it's a pool
of saliva and juice of love
and god lives in heaven above
does love to goddess 
and kisses her face
heart becomes happy and sings
of nice beautiful things
for love is so beautiful and sweet
that happy little birds chirp and tweet
if you don't love this poem i will be sad
and think that you don't love me and think that you are bad
so let us do the love
and fly high to the sky above!

Monday, December 2, 2013

ফিরে এসো পরাগ, ফিরে এসো নীলোফার

ফিরে এসো পরাগ, বিষন্ন গোধূলিতে
আমি তোমার জন্য তিন ঠ্যাং কাটা মুর্ধণ্য
আমি তোমার জন্য খামারবাড়ি, অবিমিশ্র

বোধহয় হেমন্তকালে কিছু পাখি
নরম পেটের মাথা উথলে একদা
ভিজেছিলো যেরকম, অথবা মখমল মিকিমাউস -
পলাশের নন্দ্যনন্দিত লালিমা

ফিরে এসো নীলোফার,
জেটির শিকল ছিঁড়ে,
অথবা বাঁকানো ঈগল-ঠোঁটে হা-ক্লান্ত রীতিপ্রথা সমেত
ওরা তোমার জরায়ুতে কর্কষ স্বর
ওরা তোমার কঙ্কালে সিংহকেশর
আমার টেবিলে কিছু নির্দিষ্ট স্থানে - আখরোট, কিশমিশ, প্রভৃতি মহার্ঘ্য ফল দেখে
যে'মতে ঈষৎ উষ্মা প্রকাশ করেন রাজ-অধিরাজ -
প্রজ্ঞাপ্ত, একত্রিত অতএব!