The Map of Absence by Palash Mahmud

An old world sparrow flew

over the river Brahmaputra.

Emotions battling under

its chestnut plumages.

To show the consequences

of our unsettling actions.

A flare of grief beaconing

into its waterproofed eyes.

To mirror the black hole

of our heart filled with ashes.

A crippling haze drew

a map of absence across

the centenarian vihara.

Perched on the lingering

grief of a broken terracotta.

Decreeing an urgency

for mercy, calling 

an elasticity of coexistence

on earth.

On the arid ridge of extinction

the sparrow sitting 

with a flash of fear.

---

Palash Mahmud is a bilingual writer, book critic based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His poetry, literary reviews and criticisms have appeared in Cordite Poetry Review, Active Muse,  League of Poets, Superstition Review, The Punch Magazine, Kitaab, Ephemeral Elegies, The Bosphorus Review of Books, Poetry Potion and forthcoming elsewhere.