Maturing

for SAP

Always the same whining about
the distances, always the same
muscles flinching at the thought. 
The shortest distance covered 
is displacement, you say; it is
physics. I say I know without 
knowing anything about des-
peration. I am not a walker:
who became wiser anyways
by rising early for walks?
You say I am just a baby, wrapping
your hands around me—an
amniotic memory. I say this 
is magic; you are, you say. 
I learnt to love walking like
blood learns a narcotic.
Love is the shortest distance 
to you. This is geometry. 
Half the circumference of
a day the sun's iridescence no
longer a nuisance. You see,
you scorched me into life. 

Ahmad Saleh Abdullah, a former medical student, is currently an English major at the University of Dhaka. Reach him at [email protected].