Shanti, the playboy of satkhira

Based on a true story

('...poets, as everybody knows,

are not to be entirely trusted.') 

i. shanti in his deathbed

death is more capricious

than bangladesh railway, doctor.

have you ever listened to

'bohemian rhapsody'

just after having the second 

orgasm in a row?

i am not so aesthetic

as you

in sexual activities, mr shanti.

escapes are exigent

from this valley of

the shadow of death,

i fear chaos: 

for no one's with me.

you treat cancer

i'm suffering from it

i can sense— it's near

so leave me to be 

the same hedonist

i am

ii. sweet satkhira accent

shanti's father passed away early

& mother—got away.

once one of shanti's friend

showed him a bollywood

song of emraan hashmi.

that day he discovered

a pungent way 

to escape—kiss!

to where he was escaping—

did not want to know;

oneday while sucking 

the life out ofhis 

high school sweetheart,

she tooka 10 seconds pause 

and whispered, 'I'm running away

with bhutto bhai;

but whenever I'll hear 

sweet satkhira accent,

I'll remember you, shanti'

at first he wanted to report 

child marriage

but it was easier to 

find a girlfriend than

facing the police

iii. saddam and bush in satkhira

in an early winter morning

0f 2006

on his way to school,

shanti saw an effigy burning.

people were throwing their

slippers at it and shouting:

'free saddam Hussein!'

shanti asked his friend:

who's saddam hussein?

'a muslim'

then who's that burning man?

'bush'

who's bush?

'the enemy of muslims'

shanti's friend replied

with such anger in

his eyes

iv. song of early youth

ate

loved, made love (or screwed, whatever)

slept

and if he wrote 

a doggerel by chance

he felt immortal

& alive—when his lovers

used to say:

'your words make my lips

dry, make them wet!'

but between weed & woman

he should have chosen wisely

v. prison dairy of shanti

in the streets

of satkhira

you may hack 

your lover's husband

to death,

if you wish

you may tease,

even can you piss

but you can never kiss

Md Mehedi Hasan's writings have been published in The Daily Star, The Daily Observer, The Independent, The Wagon Magazine (Chennai, India), and Arts & Letters- Dhaka Tribune