সিংহ-খেলা

পাহাড়ে পাহাড়ে আলোর মালা

নদীতে নদীতে গান

বুকের ভিতর ঘণ্টা বাজছে

শিরদাঁড়া টানটান

জিজীবিষাময় ছন্দ তুলে

আঁকছে খোয়াবনামা

কখনো গুণ্ডা কখনো বিরসা

কখনো সত্যভামা

মশাল জ্বালে বনস্থলী

হাওয়ায় কাঁপে পাতা

রক্ত-ঘামের ডায়েরী জুড়ে

পুড়ছে যাপনভাতা

জমাট বাঁধা আঁধারপথে

পুরাণ-কঠোর বেশে

বজ্রমুঠোয় কলজে ধরে

হিড়মা এলো দেশে

শাল-মহুলের স্বপ্ন মেখে

সিংহখেলার শুরু

বাজুক তবে পাগলা-মাদল

বাজাও ডম্বরু

ছয়টি হাজার বছর ধরে

জমলো যত ব্যথা

এবার তবে পাল্টা-পালা

দ্রোহরাগ-কথকতা!

you will never know

you will never know what beast pounds inside all the time 

the stars are strangely quiet tonight

what do we care about broken boats? starfishes grow limbs,

emptiness eats the sky.

rain has taken all the postcards tonight.

A History of the Fall

In the summer of 1936, there was a war
In the autumn of 2017, the war still is
The same enemy – power
The same dreams – freedom

In the summer of 1937,
three human fireflies
had fallen in Granada
Along with many other
Across the  world.

In the autumn of 2017, the fireflies
have fallen in swarms

The last seventy years,
like the seventy thousand before that
has been a history
of this fall

In the summer of 1936,
by some firefly-bereft dump
Three good people
Got bumped off.
As did many more in many other places

In the autumn of 2017
In a country where Barcelona
is football clubs for the elite
Two such fireflies
got it bad. As tanks entered Catalonia.

By then,
everywhere,
real fireflies were leaving
fast.

letter from one weary bombay night

Come, dance, what else is there to do?

too much dust on the lenses. Fireflies fly no more, 

except occasionally;

Mocking bird mocks no more. It is sad. One mad donkey

named Civilization 

beats the dust, 

brays on. It is nothing.

I would have rather named it Platero

I would rather name each speck of stardust – Love

This will not change anything. This is not meant to. 

This is where, cities of the halogen night

meet naked rivers made of mist. This is where everything

turns into time. This is where we must dance. 

Nothing ever has been 

as beautiful

as this silence.