Akbar Hosain
(For Ashreen)
My little daughter is barely one year and two months
When she smiles, she does it very sweetly
As if heaven rests on her little face and
Mock all our vain attempts to get to heaven
But how she acquired to faint and fear
Became a big puzzle for me
One evening while she was in her sportive mood, chuckling
Very smartly her attention darted back to the wall
She fixed her gaze with parted, quivering, soft little lips
I followed her shift
A tiny, transparent lizard crawling on the wall
Making its ‘tick’, ‘tick’ sound,
And relishing at its small bites of prey gathered around the light
But why she feared
This pretty little creature and its clocky chorus
Instead of celebrating
Stuck my mind for some days and nights
Without thread of clues or hints any
To delve deep into the bottom of mystery
A big question mark began to dance
Before a man, trapped in a trench
Why at the very first sight
Her reaction to a fair little creature should be fear?
Why not joy, indifference or other feeling?
Many days later this simple revelation
Came to me:
Lately she was overjoyed to see a show of cockroach
Now Joy’s twin sister was to be born
And Fear was born in the form of a lizard
That pure work of Heaven!
That legendary tale of Light and Darkness!
Dear daughter, when my day ceases into nothing
And when your day will come andLife’s millions of murky lizards shall crawl
Onto your life to devour what is light, what is good
Knowing that we are powerless mortals
To thwart the fabrication of the divine
To finish eternally the power of Darkness here on earth
Let this LOVE of your father, this flimsy Light
Be your guide and exorcist
And prove a fortress against the advent of teeming lizards
Drive away their evil workings from your poor soul
Make you upright and live your life in a pool of pleasure.