Saree

The saree spread out in the yard 
is my grandmother's 

When she died
I didn't go to see her for the last time 

Seeing someone in the casket
Seals a permanent image in my mind
That dead face haunts me round the clock

No matter how hard I try
I can't erase that image from my mind 

The yard in this noontime is buzzing with
The white aroma of the guava flower  

The saree that is spread out in the yard
Is my grandmother's 

But from a distance
It looks like
That saree is my mother's 

Hasan Robayet is a Bangladeshi poet.

Quamrul Hassan is a poet and an MFA Candidate of Creative Writing and Translation at the University of Arkansas.