About Green
and nothing cures myopia
better than green does.
women look killing in their green saris.
As the colour of envy is green,
I get envious seeing our green pastures
fill up with stables up to the horizon.
1988, the year on the almanac,
is for those who hate green.
And the hired menials who are digging
the horizons for putting up a stable--
they too wear green, creating a pretty
illusion for the eyes.
(As a laudugi snake camouflages
among the reeds!)
Our pretty women bent like a river
and laughed at the slightest joke:
a blow on their thighs has silenced them.
Our women's smiles was as pure as their youth;
their larynxes have been cast in concrete.
'Green, green, I love you green,'
chanted a Spanish poet, and went on
to plant his flag in the bosom of love;
we hardly know the colour of the foxes
who now urinate on his grave.
My country is famous for being green,
and nothing cures myopia
better than green does--
Of course blindness needs a hasher cure.
Khondakar Ashraf Hossain teaches English at Dhaka University.
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