Old Friendship
Old friendship like cold tea
waits at your side
You return to it at leisure
without much hurry.
And you sip it when others
leave hotfoot in emergency.
The old friend has all the time
To fill in your empty moments
And doesn't mind at all when you leave
without completing the sentence.
On Meeting by Chance
After ages one day
We happened to be
Passing each other.
I greeted her
But greetings returned
With a cold stare.
I thought she didn't hear
But it was a mistake:
She did hear, but ignored
We'd ever known each other.
We were embarrassed in turn,
Claiming and disclaiming our past.
Anyway, we weren't total strangers:
In us was our past deeply embalmed
And silence had got its tongue.
Masud Mahmood is formerly a Professor of English, Chittagong University.
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