By: Rehanul Hoque

Provided you are my sweetheart
Borrowing tints from aurora I will dye your silk
Wearing that silk, you will come to know
How much of labor, exhaustion, decadence and misery
Lurk beneath a thing of beauty.

Provided you are my sweetheart
You are at your liberty to come in,
Dressed to kill in a red strapless gown
Golden hair, hairline as lightning
Your face a crescent moon, eyes that of a doe
Teeth like flashes of gem inscribed on coral
The mole on your chin bearing symbol of aristocracy
And 36-22-34 becoming your secret design;
You will come to know the exact number of Devdases and
Why Troy fell into ruin!

Provided you are my sweetheart
We will roam around the ant-house and
Travel the bee colony
You will see a forbidden city with
So long a history, so many records as testimony to highlight glories
Each cell resembles the taverns of Alhambra
My queen, there you are the center of attraction
Let youth and life be lost at your feet
Girl, do you know the reasons behind acid menace?
Panorpa, can it be called love that leads you to death!

Provided you are my sweetheart
Being microorganism you will sniff the mummies
Nefertiti will appear too young to you
Ice age, not so far!
Oh, what a process of creation through years
Heading towards nothingness like the red giants;
Now, no one cares
If you are going to be banished to a land of no return!

Provided you are my sweetheart
I will entertain you with Fugu fish
Wearing colorful lenses you will walk the beach
And dive in the rough sea;
Coming across a false fish you will experience
The unique process of deception being legalized,
As a way to success in life.

Provided you are my sweetheart
I will accompany you to Baghdad and different cemeteries
You will see pyramid of skulls
Do you smell something?
It’s genocide – a proof of supremacy!
No worries- you can also have a trip to green fields, rainforest and land of fungi
Quite intriguing, as you find everyone busy in framing laws although
‘Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let
Wasps and hornets break through’.

Provided you are my sweetheart
Befriending butterfly you will know
The secret of telepathy,
How many drops have shed from the eyes of Leibnitz and
Obtaining patent who wins the Nobel Prize!
No fear,
Crossing the ocean extended up to horizon
You will feel fame is but an illusion.

Provided you are my sweetheart
I will introduce you to revolution, Marx, Engels and numerous ‘Isms’
You will hear people chanting slogans- ‘your leader, my leader
Mark Butcher, Mark Butcher’
The elated leader waving hand from the Maple tree
Delivers a short speech- ‘Ladies and gentlemen, without demur,
Leave at my disposal whatever you own
Win the heroic status in life on earth,
On death, get the rare chance to be branded as martyr
You know- between martyrdom and heaven death is only an event
Wear suicide vest, accept death and live peacefully in heaven’!

Provided you are my sweetheart
Crossing bars of degenerated electrons
You will reach Rakia, Maun, Malakut and far away to
Lamiah with Emerald, Yakut gemstone and Scarlet gold all around!
Leaning over to a side, you will smile
And take a peek at earth-
A home for hopes and dejection,
Concurrence and contention, war and revolution
But where is love?

Provided you are my sweetheart
Madly you will ransack Tajmohol, Shalimar bagh, Rose garden and Park
Center of Excellence, laboratory and so many places
Some will opine-
Love is either passion or devotion
Some will call it a violent prison-
Success in separation, ruined in union
Some will brand love as endless waiting
And to someone it is half-love, half-dream.

Madly looking for someone, ready to love in exchange for life,
You become tired and upset but no reply.
On a sudden, you will see the western sky aglow
In bright shards of yellow, orange and crimson
Gradually the picture melts into the boundless sea-
Leaves behind water, flashes of quivering silver
As the sole memory!

After all these if you ask ‘What is love’?
Whether you intend to be my sweetheart or not
‘I don’t know’- my only answer.