{"id":222,"date":"2021-11-27T23:19:11","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T23:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.illinoisstate.edu\/euphemism\/17-1\/?page_id=222"},"modified":"2021-11-27T23:19:11","modified_gmt":"2021-11-27T23:19:11","slug":"a-prayer-for-my-daughter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/a-prayer-for-my-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer for My Daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"
Akbar Hosain<\/h5>\n
\n
(For Ashreen)<\/div>\n
My little daughter is barely one year and two months<\/div>\n
When she smiles, she does it very sweetly<\/div>\n
As if heaven rests on her little face and<\/div>\n
Mock all our vain attempts to get to heaven<\/div>\n
But how she acquired to faint and fear<\/div>\n
Became a big puzzle for me<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
One evening while she was in her sportive mood, chuckling<\/div>\n
Very smartly her attention darted back to the wall<\/div>\n
She fixed her gaze with parted, quivering, soft little lips<\/div>\n
I followed her shift<\/div>\n
A tiny, transparent lizard crawling on the wall<\/div>\n
Making its \u2018tick\u2019, \u2018tick\u2019 sound,<\/div>\n
And relishing at its small bites of prey gathered around the light<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But why she feared<\/div>\n
This pretty little creature and its clocky chorus<\/div>\n
Instead of celebrating<\/div>\n
Stuck my mind for some days and nights<\/div>\n
Without thread of clues or hints any<\/div>\n
To delve deep into the bottom of mystery<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A big question mark began to dance<\/div>\n
Before a man, trapped in a trench<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Why at the very first sight<\/div>\n
Her reaction to a fair little creature should be fear?<\/div>\n
Why not joy, indifference or other feeling?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Many days later this simple revelation<\/div>\n
Came to me:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Lately she was overjoyed to see a show of cockroach<\/div>\n
Now Joy\u2019s twin sister was to be born<\/div>\n
And Fear was born in the form of a lizard<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
That pure work of Heaven!<\/div>\n
That legendary tale of Light and Darkness!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dear daughter, when my day ceases into nothing<\/div>\n
And when your day will come andLife\u2019s millions of murky lizards shall crawl<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Onto your life to devour what is light, what is good<\/div>\n
Knowing that we are powerless mortals<\/div>\n
To thwart the fabrication of the divine<\/div>\n
To finish eternally the power of Darkness here on earth<\/div>\n
Let this LOVE of your father, this flimsy Light<\/div>\n
Be your guide and exorcist<\/div>\n
And prove a fortress against the advent of teeming lizards<\/div>\n
Drive away their evil workings from your poor<\/em> soul<\/div>\n
Make you upright and live your life in a pool of pleasure.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… <\/p>\n

Read more A Prayer for My Daughter<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-222","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":394,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222\/revisions\/394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}