A Living Thing Poem by Dr Khairul Chowdhury

- A poem written by Khairul Haque Chowdhury on the thematic of Jibananda Das's "Pakhi"

a living thing

You are asleep after a long journey,
Who should I tell - how am I stuck with an appalling astonishment?
I'm talking about my discovery - the breadth and length of my discovery
A note just received from the stars: - you are not waking,
Here is a bird sitting on my chest,
Is it a bird? Or, is it a nearly extinct, red and blue butterfly? Is it a bird? Or, is it a lonesome firefly?
It has covered itself with brown, golden and blue feathers,
Comes to me in such a lonely cold night
From which quiet string of grass has it originated?
From which string of paddy has it originated?
From the egg of a silk-worm has it acquired this weird pulsation?

On a moonlit night
Who does he want to spend the night with?
Does the lonely string of straw pain him? Is there anything without pain on earth?

No - a - his face glows with the unconquerable courage and positiveness;
He knows no pain - he depended on the complexity of life
Feathers - beaks - feathers
These create his fantastic cape.

On a moonlit cold night
He has to come to my grip
Why do I hesitate to kill you when there are death-traps all around? I'm also sitting in the clasp of someone who will not hesitate to take my life anyway; I know I will not let you free by any chance;
Yet, I do caress your wet and soft body,
I see fear in your golden eyes; this bird - so tiny - yet, he learned - the greatest mystery of life - the eternal pain and the fear of demise of everything beautiful;
There is no hope, no desire - not even love and there cannot be dreams in our earthly life
An eternally flowing sense of parting and bereavement looms all around;
this painfulness resides in their chests as well; in their chests as well; draped in the numberless deep coloured feathers; why then his eyes look for the ocean of moonshine? Why do the golden eyes search for the ocean of moonshine?
Why does he strive to understand the creation myth?