In an Old Metropolis Once We Lived

When I put my first step 
In a novel burg
I look for a country-liquor store
Thereafter moving to some old bookshop:
I suck the burns 
Of failed poets.
Sympathizing their life
I move ahead to the finest restaurant 
And ask:
Oi mate, what's special here?

But when I cross the flower market
Of the old city
I picture them calling me a Friday-priest.
Yet when I begged Allah for a red rose
He chuckled and handed over
The love of my life
As sacred as I dress before going to the mosque
On Fridays.

Md Mehedi Hasan's poems have been published in The Daily Star, The Daily Observer, The Independent, The Wagon Magazine (Chennai, India) and also in some other literary magazines.