Translated by Mohammad Shafiqul Islam

Leave a flower from your bun when you depart, my love.

The July wind brought in the scent of new beginnings

Magic boys and girls of Bangladesh, I love you.

In the blanks of muddy moonlight

A walkway through the crystal-clear lies

Review of 'Shamim Reza: Selected Poems' (ULAB Press, 2023)

You've ignited a tempest, / a crimson anger, / A defiance burning brighter than the summer's sun

Surely, it’s madness / it’s insanity—that he walked on

the way there was complete silence when you lied for the first time. You opened your eyes

But talks of harmony flood your nose. / Harmony, harmony, harmony—you want it so bad, / and so you put words in our mouths

“Attention passengers. The next train arriving is a B train traveling westbound towards Boston College.  Please stand clear of the closing doors."

a man walks into a bar but he looks like a little boy

the bullet hole/ in my brother's chest/ unfolds like a pandora's box

My father speaks in a dismantled language that goes up in  smoke. 

justice—where is justice?

Where voices unite, a chorus strong, / Demanding justice, righting wrong

‘You must bury / yourself / Every three days’ / She said, / ‘Corpses are of / No use

Your grief rots the decades old paint and the lakhri no one bothered to replace. Even across the road, it reeks of death.

I inhale the luxurious scent / of squelched earth / smoking under the sodden leaves