Schools are burnt, houses torched

Properties are looted, children killed

Abduction and migration are settled

When there's nothing left in the land

The UN warns, the UN, so kind

They do not know the meaning of

ethnic cleansing, they do not know

how a human can open fire at other 

humans, hit children, torture women

They have lived here, in their own

land, for years, since their forefathers

built homes for them. They do not

have skyscrapers, only humble houses

They do not want to go anywhere

because they belong to this land and

the land belongs to them. The trees

here do not want to let them leave

Seeing the armed people involved in

killing spree, redden the green grass

and walk on the dead bodies, the birds

stopped singing and wish to die along

With a hope of living and seeing 

their children live, they attempt to

cross the Naf, the river they have an

eternal seam with, but in vain

Starving for days and weeks, they

look like skeletons. Emaciated, their

children cannot cry anymore – their

eyes have enlarged, bones are visible

The Naf, the quiet Naf that still flows

and still allows boats to carry the

humans is helpless and sad, but it

no more wants to see its water red. 

Mohammad Shafiqul Islam teaches English at Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, Sylhet.