Rayhan Rhyne is a poet, fiction writer, and translator. He teaches philosophy at Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka.
1.
A cat haunted a shalik, playfully. That bird dies off before the eyes of some earth-doves sitting on the tree. The moment the jerking stops, the moment death approaches- in what an unknown restraint, the cat retreats, slowly.
2.
...
Once intruding into an orchard, a hungry boy
Ate up some well-ripe apples,
Moreover, he hid some more beneath his wears.
The sentry saw this theft in his dreams while drowsing.
...
'What remains in the folded sleeves of the winter-sky
What exists in the ceaseless gibberish of the evening-madness
Whose empathy advances from earth towards the bunches of green leaves
What keeps growing in the scribbling of a fade, rough notebook... ”
...
Once Yama asked a grave-digger, for whom have you dug grave today?
The grave-digger smiles, you know-
nobody has died in our city.
...