Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain was an autodidact who became a formidable champion of women’s rights and education when women in South Asia, especially Muslim women, were forced to live in subhuman conditions, almost like animals, or even worse than animals

I feel my rage, ma, a living thing;/ A beast, caged, like me

All that I’d despicably known / Things I wish I didn’t know–

Skin sticky with perspiration from a long month of June 

What I wish I didn’t know is that when your dear friends whisper the word “psycho” behind your back, you’ll grow up accepting it.

You must have heard the story of your birth a thousand times by now, sweetheart. Your mother and I—home alone.

I skip talking to myself for hours / The “me time”, before going to bed

Raindrops whisper on the tin roof’s drum,

After the previous tenant vacated the house, Khan E Alam decided not to accommodate any younger residents.

If you travel on a bus, always take the window seat.

Is it true that when we migrate, we lose a few people from our past?

On my birthday, Bitan genially offers 

Selina Hossain is a celebrated novelist in the realm of Bangla literature.

Again, I wasn’t a poet, but words and sentences jumbled up seeing that small face, light make-up enhancing her beauty. A loose strand of hair cascaded down her cheek, framing her face.

It was not a question one would ask as he did/ With his round glasses at the end of his nose

i quite like the smell of cloves, even more when they're burning/ turning charcoal in front of my eyes

This is a garden, these are my petals; this is my armoring plant

The majority of my early childhood was spent in a big house filled with endless possibilities. At least, that’s what my preteen self thought at the time.

Shut shut let me shut my eyes, for even though / the dawn confiscating the dusk’s shades of greys arrives, / there is no place for me

Sweat beads upon my brow, my shirt begins to cling/ The vile monster's tendrils reach out, adhesive