In your restive, waiting evening
Experience tells you,
Do not spoil the evening;
sip your coffee, and ponder something—
Is everything so wretched?
The light is dim, framing the dustbin outside.
Such a nuisance—the little girl in nothing at all!
Even the intersection is unhinged, rushing with red eyes,
opening green eyes only to go blind.
No, not these.
Do not waste a thought on such things.
A man of your worth doesn’t bother with them;
please, do not ruin your evening.
Ask yourself instead: why is there no Starbucks here?
Is the coffee cloyingly sweet?
Thinkers like you crave a bitter brew.
Ponder your new lover’s swelling breasts instead—
the finest creation of beauty in the world is a woman’s breast.
Your fountain pen, engraved with the Madonna,
sheds its clothes as it writes—
compare the two pairs of breasts, while within your skull
a war breaks out between rival miracles.
Do not dare think of the beauty of the vagina,
it is like a black hole,
where your entire being collapses into nothingness.
Do not spoil the evening;
let each sip of coffee
yield another intoxicating draft.
May your evening be blessed. Let her arrive,
let her warmth outmatch the coffee’s steam.
Sit face to face and begin to write—
let the lover’s body strip down like the fountain pen.
Do not spoil the evening.
Drag the poem deep into the night—
let the ink of the fountain pen
flood the undiscovered vagina.
Biography
Ri Hossain is a prominent voice in Bengali poetry, recognized as a rebellious and resilient figure in the contemporary literary landscape. Born on August 19, 1981, in Rangpur, Bangladesh, with ancestral roots in Munshiganj, he began his literary journey in 1993. His poetry deeply reflects personal experiences, societal conflicts, urban alienation, and a steadfast commitment to free expression. Author of several works, including the poetry collection Kobitar Abhyutthan Chai (2024), his writing bridges social consciousness with profound psychological and intimate introspection.
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