[Knowing is risky as ignorance is dangerous]
The mountains are high & hard.
The oceans are soft & low.
Who fixes their beauty & value?
That was the question
A mulberry tree asked me.
When I was passing the façade
of the Library of Celsus.
In a melancholic voice
I replied –
Sun rises in the east
Sets in the west
Who says it is flawless?
Heraclitus climbed Mount Ararat
To see the world in every way
Only he saw a monochrome
Neither green nor blue.
Who said-
Only black is the opposite of white?
Who claimed-
Woman is woman, man is man?
Are they categorical mistakes
Or a linguistic terrorism?
Then who can tell me
The colour of water.
Who can show me
The leap of time.
When you only know
The anthropocentric reality.
When you only care
The corresponding genes.
What is human?
It is not discovered yet.
Not-knowing is blissful as knowing is glorious
Palash Mahmud is a bilingual writer, book critic based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His poetry, literary reviews and criticisms appeared in Cordite Poetry Review, Mediterranean Poetry, Active Muse, League of Poets, Superstition Review, The Punch Magazine, Kitaab, Ephemeral Elegies, The Bosphorus Review of Books, Poetry Potion Trouvaille Review, Poet’s Choice and forthcoming elsewhere.