by Masrur Ahmed

I

All I want is to be in a place

Where I’m on the dry grassy bed

Sleeping or watching the sky

Eyes shut to enter into the nothingness

Or wide open to witness the limitless

And let my heart feel the presence of silence.

No, I do not call them sounds—

When the grasses touch each other

When the wind blows and gets stuck in my ears

When the birds twitter and

Somewhere far, jingles the bell

And the friendly insects

Crawl on and under the soil

No, I do not call them sounds,

But silence.

They are part of nature

Which I let my heart feel the presence of.

And maybe then, I’ll find

A way to think, the answers

To this and which I’ve always inquired.

II

By sleeping on that dry grassy land

By watching the cloudy sky by day

And the starry sky by night

You may answer through my dreams

Or by forming the clouds,

In different shapes, in several layers

By twinkling the stars, in Morse code.

Well, You know all them sorts,

You know all them ways.

All I want is nothing but to see

The unseen, at least a glance.

You might be the light

That may not meet my sight

You may cover my eyes then

Using the darkest nights

To filter Your light into my eyes.

You might be the invisible,

Hidden to the sinful eyes.

You may give me the water then

That You preserved for the righteous

To clean the eyes and see

The most beautiful sight.

Then all I’ll here again the voice telling me

Then know that—

“Heaven on earth is absurd

And beauty my friend

Is an expensive thing.”