AHMAD SALEH ABDULLAH

for SAP

Always the same whining about

the distances, always the same

muscles flinching at the thought.

The shortest distance covered

is displacement, you say; it is

physics. I say I know without

knowing anything about des-

peration. I am not a walker:

who became wiser anyways

by rising early for walks?

You say I am just a baby, wrapping

your hands around me—an

amniotic memory. I say this

is magic; you are, you say.

I learnt to love walking like

blood learns a narcotic.

Love is the shortest distance

to you. This is geometry.

Half the circumference of

a day the sun’s iridescence no

longer a nuisance. You see,

you scorched me into life.

Ahmad Saleh Abdullah , a former medical student, is currently an English major at the University of Dhaka. Reach him at asabdullah.ag@gmail.com.