Receding
Do I live
a life by choice?
this smallest inquisition
with the biggest doubt
I stop.
My left index finger
frozen on E;
an air of inhibition
spinning
around my nostril,
holding
my breaths.
The air like
a general of an army
parading through
the passage of delirium
at the threshold
of my lungs.
The air expels the keys
C-H-O-I-C-E
with short blasts
one by one.
The battalion
of intolerance continues.
I recede.
My right middle finger
placed on Backspace,
pushed E
back.
Palash Mahmud is a bilingual writer, book critic based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His poetry, literary reviews and criticisms have appeared in Cordite Poetry Review, Active Muse, League of Poets, Superstition Review, The Punch Magazine, Kitaab, Ephemeral Elegies, The Bosphorus Review of Books, Poetry Potion and forthcoming elsewhere.
He writes on his personal blog PM Review. You can also find him palash.mahmud.10 on Facebook & @palashmahmud10 on Twitter.