Spring  has  officially  arrived  in  Dhaka  this  week  and  it  is  warming  up  fast,  so today  I’m  sharing  a poem  called  ‘Spring  in  Dhaka’.

 

Spring

 

It’s spring in Dhaka

Mornings are getting lighter

Short, sharp winter has faded

Earmuffs are flung in sludgy gutters

And suits disappear into the dark depths of crowded wardrobes

 

Early and late the mosquitoes swarm in ecstasy

Hiding in black and sniffing the air for unwashed feet

And sinewy ankles

 

Weddings are celebrated in apartment blocks bedecked with fairy lights

Whole streets filled with twinkling fireflies

Powered by energy from black breathing generators

Newly roused from their short winter hibernation

 

Trees await the monsoon,

stripping off dusty, sun-bleached leaves in anticipation

And burned in street sweepers piles, twigs and leaves

add to the texture of the grainy air

 

The breath of the dragon filters down the narrow streets in the afternoon

Licking lips in anticipation, but still he sleeps long and late

Building his strength

And mornings are safe and cool

 

Water levels are low and as the days warm

water bubbles ripen greenly on the surface

fish are concentrating in the city soup,

tiny fish mouths break the scummy surface, gasping for oxygen

 

days are waiting, waiting fearfully for the heat

every organism is longing, longing thirstily for the rain