The following poem is dedicated to the loving memories of Belal M. Rokonuddin (Lulu Islam) who has passed away a few days ago.

Regards,

Sohel

Lulu, You Will be Remembered in Glowing Sunsets

By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)

March 28, 2003

It is the horror of war that pained you


It is the endless bombs and deaths


And Generals’ chatters for the “mop up” operation


Troubled you, you were distressed about the world


And the future it holds for our humanity


You cried seeing the ferocious brutality in war


And neo-pundits’ muffled laughter in envisaging reverie to reality

Lulu, you are far away from this hellish mess


Lulu, you are far away from seeing blood and flesh


Being displayed in commercial digits from choked television


Amid the burning smoke wafting in desert and leader’s mission


Of invasion and subjugating an ancient nation


And parades of soldiers, alive and dead, and burnt children’s scream


Made your poetic soul cry out for the loss of sensibility


You shouted for the peace and end of brutality

Lulu, anti-aircraft’s desperate growl won’t disrupt your dream


Lulu, you won’t be seeing the cowardice tango extreme


Whose purpose is to rile up more war and destruction for profits


And shaping the world in might’s hammer for their favorites


Snatching all the places and reining this world of green


By knotted robot conservatives and machine pristine

Lulu, you have departed this destructive world but left your dreams


Remain to be fulfilled by the peaceful generation not the regimes


Of violent sheen erupting from their head to toe in anticipation


For a victory over weak using enforced humiliation


And depriving the child nutrition for decade old maneuvers


In the sky, perhaps, you Lulu, still crying witnessing fevers


Of war rampaging the globe and you Lulu, wished the end of all this intimidation


And wanted to see peace returns to earth, not proceeds seeking obliteration

Lulu, you will be remembered in your melancholy poems and literary besets


Lulu, you will be remembered for your innocent wishes in glowing sunsets

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