Where There Is A Man There Is A Country. Poem by Sk. Nurul Huda

It was at the beginning period
Of my working as a reporter,
I met a staggering and lonely lady
I started to take an interview...

Where are you going?
She was indifferent to me.
Why are you only one?
She answered not.
Whats the matter mother?
She looked at me... paused.
'you call me mother? Would
You hear me?

I greedily noded... tell me all..

'I was working with my elder son and two daughters,
To nurture my new born green saplings
Of dates,
Suddenly two masked men come
Capture my son
They hijacked him..
I ask, who are you and why are you
Taking my son?
They said, 'we want to save our country...
AND your son... We need him'.

I leave that part....

I take the shelter in a town
Some uniformed men come
And cast some bullet at a market where
My two girls go for shopping...
They become corpses among a group..
I get the chance to ask one..
Why you do this?
The MAN answered, 'we are protecting you,
Our country'.


So I am leaving this place and walking.'
She stopped.
I ask but where?
'where there is no man'.

Why? I repeat.

'Because where there is a man there is a country'.