by Mostofa Sarwar
AI-generated graphic by Shutterstock
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I rode the Captain’s Float in Endymion I saw the frolicking crowd I enjoyed the rainbow of merriment undulating its mesmerizing wings, sprinkling its magical potions over the revelers The scintillating curves of human flesh under the thin veneer of fabrics The vile sound of the Second Amendment flashing snippets of life The dead crawling the crowded streets I saw the specter of Paul Verlaine over Saint Charles Avenue He was catching beads Was he happy? He was wearing an MP3 player Was he listening to Debussy’s incarnation of his ‘Claire du Lune’? Or was eternal pain eating his flesh Like a deadly virus I saw Under the veil of merriment New Orleans, like Bergamo, hiding the suffering, and poverty, violence, injustice Let me have a jug of absinthe And forget this weird world of pain and joy
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Dr. Mostofa Sarwar is professor emeritus and former associate provost at the University of New Orleans, dean and ex-vice-chancellor and provost of Delgado Community College. His opinion essays were published in The Daily Star and Bdnews24.com of Bangladesh, The Strait Times of Singapore, The Statesman of India, Phuket News of Thailand, The Times Picayune of New Orleans, The Advocate of Baton Rouge, The Acadiana Advocate of Lafayette, The Daily Advent and The Opera News of New York. Recently, his English poems were published in Sangam Literary Magazine and The Seattle Star Magazine. Sarwar published three books of Bengali poems. He frequently appears in Bengali talk shows at cable TV channels (broadcast out of New York, Washington, DC, and Dhaka).