QUIET BY THE NAF

Schools are burnt, houses torched
Properties are looted, children killed
Abduction and migration are settled
When there's nothing left in the land
The UN warns, the UN, so kind

They do not know the meaning of
ethnic cleansing, they do not know
how a human can open fire at other 
humans, hit children, torture women

They have lived here, in their own
land, for years, since their forefathers
built homes for them. They do not
have skyscrapers, only humble houses
They do not want to go anywhere
because they belong to this land and
the land belongs to them. The trees
here do not want to let them leave

Seeing the armed people involved in
killing spree, redden the green grass
and walk on the dead bodies, the birds
stopped singing and wish to die along

With a hope of living and seeing 
their children live, they attempt to
cross the Naf, the river they have an
eternal seam with, but in vain

Starving for days and weeks, they
look like skeletons. Emaciated, their
children cannot cry anymore – their
eyes have enlarged, bones are visible

The Naf, the quiet Naf that still flows
and still allows boats to carry the
humans is helpless and sad, but it
no more wants to see its water red. 

Mohammad Shafiqul Islam teaches English at Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, Sylhet.