My deprived country

ft pains to see you walk in the streets

An old man,

■ Older my misery, hunger and thirst

Toupee and beard

Honest as the Holy Book

Hand In hand with his progeny

A little girl in a white frock, shaved head and bare feet Walking on a road that leads nowhere

What is your story this time

Is it the floods that swept away your home

Or is it the cyclone that took away all but this little girl Do you live In a little house, the space of two graves Just And do you toil as each and every soul toils, day after day In the fields ploughing, breaking bricks, pushing, pulling Man after man

Day alter day

Darkened as coal

The tolling masses of Bangladesh