Ibrar Sami

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The Dust-Covered Door

An old thread unravels
through the needle
of patience.

Across a forgotten landscape
hangs
the shadow of mist.

Time
keeps flowing.

Inside the heart,
speechless words
have settled into dust.

I look toward the sky—
like a kite
with its string cut loose.

Upon the dust-covered door
remain
your footprints.

Each day,
the mist leaves
another season
upon them.

Sorrow—
a grey autumn.

The moments
that slipped away
knock in silence
upon that door.

In the impossible busyness
of leisure,
the dates marked
on the calendar
hear
your footsteps.

At the end of the road,

a restless city.

No one turns back
toward the shadow
on the wall.

Yet
half a memory
lies folded
between the pages
of a diary.

What was once
a story

is now
a silent trace.

Ibrar Sami is the pen name of Samiul Bashir, a Bangladeshi poet writing in both Bangla and English. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ink, Sweat & Tears, The Pointed Circle, Shot Glass Journal, Levitate Magazine, Antae, Mosaic Lit Journal, New Words {press}, Ultramarine Literary Review, and other international literary journals and anthologies. He is the author of the poetry collections Shadow and Silence and Where Shadows Break Silence.