Poetry
Diasporic delusions
Translation of Quazi Johirul Islam’s ‘Boka Porobash’
Rows of immigrants lined up in front of hangers
Immigrant joys and sorrows, black, white and brown
Audible tears in their pockets; side bags full of memories of a faraway land,
Of childhoods spent in two-storied buildings in Beanibazar or Gowainghat, Sylhet
Self-confidence shaken, some shattered memories in their side bags
One or two dreams held on to and still polished…
Of a boy holding his head six and a half feet high on a Harvard stairway,
And a daughter with a stethoscope on her neck, paycheck running into six digits,
so bright, so dazzling!
But at present? A damp, dank basement, sleepless nights weighed down by dreams
Such are our diasporic delusions.
Quazi Johirul Islam is a poet who is currently residing in New York due to a job posting in UN Headquarters.