Retreat Poem by Osman Gani

Mother! Only a few, few days remain.
Worry not, I will return, return again
Like birds that in their nests do enter
Tearing the torturous traps of hunter.

I know each night you make extra meal
And wait in slight hope that I will, will
Come to eat supper being too, too tired.
But I am here so far, far away, starved.

Mother! I, I too linger for your affection
On the riverbed where lies my skeleton.
My two bony hands still, still, still seek
Your sacred feet that appears now bleak.

I will not go away from you again, again.
When you would sit solitary in the Eden,
Don’t think I have given you a new bluff.
Turning, you’ll find my face with laugh.


(In memory of freedom fighters in 1971 war. Many of them never returned home)