Do not shed tears when I am gone.
Give me a moment now, before my curtain is drawn.
Stay with me for a while,
Sit silently by my side.
Tasneem Hossain, a renowned multi-lingual poet from Bangladesh, shares her poems
Tasneem Hossain, majoring in English Language and Literature is a multi-lingual poet from Bangladesh. She writes poems in English, Urdu and Bengali. She is also a columnist, fiction and op-ed writer, translator, educator and trainer. Her impactful writings appear frequently in esteemed publications worldwide. She is author of three poetry books: ‘Grass in Green,’ ’The Pearl Necklace,’ ‘Floating Feathers’ and a book of articles ‘Split and Splice’. Four more books are underway. She worked as faculty of English Language in Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology. She is the director of a prominent human resource development organization Continuing Education Centre (Bangladesh) and Cansaz Services and Distribution LLC (Canada). She has 27 years of experience as a professional trainer. She runs an international poetry writing project and group named Life in Lyrics. A sportswoman, she also worked as newscaster, commentary reader and radio presenter in radio Bangladesh for 10 years and directed dramas like Shakespeare’s, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
Before My Curtain is Drawn!
Do not shed tears when I am gone.
Give me a moment now, before my curtain is drawn.
Stay with me for a while,
Sit silently by my side.
Take my hands in your hands,
Let me rest on your shoulders my friend.
Talk to me with your sweetest words,
Smile at me with your eyes, twinkling stars.
Let me listen to your whispering heart,
Engraved in my heart those moments apart;
If you cry, when I am gone;
My life’s curtain already drawn;
What meaning would it hold for me?
How will I know that you cared for me?
How will I tell you what you meant to me?
Let these moments of love be an eternity.
Come, sit beside me and love me now.
If you love me then make me this vow:
You won’t cry when I am gone,
For you will be never alone.
I will be with you very near,
Wiping away all your tears;
Do not shed tears when I am gone.
Give me a moment now, before my curtain is drawn.
[First published in Borderless journal]
***
Vinayeki
Ah! What a fleshy food.
It will satisfy my baby in my womb;
Happy and grateful to them, I am,
Those who left this to satisfy my palate;
A numbing pain through my existence, I felt.
Then the tangy tasting red fluid from my mouth bled.
Startled and in pain, I couldn’t stand in a place.
I ran and ran but the pain would not go, but outpace,
Felt for my baby and ran past the humans they call,
Tried not to harm them or their household;
Burning inside wouldn’t let me stand still.
So I ran and ran till I could no more,
Ran and ran then I saw the river Veliyar.
Waded in the water and immersed my jaw to lessen,
The burning and bleeding, a house for insects to breed in;
Two days I stood still in the water like this,
Didn’t dare to move, lest it started again to blaze and bleed.
Was it a circus or a movie shoot for them?
None came with medics and relief.
Hungry was I but couldn’t eat,
Should there be another firecracker in the treat.
I felt weakness and numbness creep on me and my legs,
Trembled in agony then I fell in the holy grave.
Silence and darkness surrounded and enslaved,
Faces, cameras shadowed around;
Oh the beautiful soft tiny whisper ‘Mama’.
Just a soft tiny whisper ‘Mama’;
Heaven in the skies and earth on the land sobbed;
My aching exhausted body I couldn’t move, eyes fogged.
[Based on a true incident in Kerala. Vinayeki, a pregnant elephant was roaming around for food and then found a pineapple. When she ate it, a firecracker inside the fruit burst in her mouth and injured her, finally causing her death.]
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Heart wrenching, yet beautiful poems