Hasan Maruf

His final sentiments were etched into the table before he succumbed to his final rest: "I found solace in the mountains. They demanded nothing and remained steadfast by my side."

For eons piano keys unmoved Lay silently asleep

The beast bellowed below Mushfiq’s bedroom window, propelling rushes of tingles within him. He smiled.

The sky to the west and overhead is mired in darkness; but to the east, light is gleaming out like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal.

Showers and storms give way To a surge of sunlight A fragrance of hope floats in On morning breeze

Carving mysterious runes with bones A pentagram etched in my soul Pulling on the blistered sinews Of Desperately unrestrained sins

He joined the army at eighteen; a soldier through and through. He was tall, sturdy, ruddy-faced, and almost always urbane. Mahmud was my neighbour for nearly five years. He had moved from barely inhabited hilly terrain of Khagrachhari to the city of a heightened breeding place, old Dhaka. His decision to leave the vacuous and soulless life of the barrack could be being closer to his own children– all of them were assumed to be in their primes.

The forest was still in the early hours of a cold autumn morning. The silence was broken only by the breeze through the trees and the restless trickling of a stream running through the middle of a clearing.