PCC INSCAPE MAGAZINE
  • Online Issue No. 10
  • About
    • PCC Inscape Instagram
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • ISSUE ARCHIVE
    • Online Issue No.9
    • 2016 Fall Online
    • 2016 Sppring Online
    • 2017 Fall Online
    • 2017 Print Issue - Manifesto TOC
    • 2018 Fall Print Issue - Frankenstein TOC
    • 2018 FA Frankenstein Companion
    • 2018 Summer Online
    • 2018 Fall Folio - VOTE
    • 2018 Fall Spirituality
    • 2019 Celebrating Dia De Los Muertos
    • 2019 SPR Mental Health Companion >
      • Issue Intro
    • 2019 Fall Folio -- Moon Moon
    • 2019 Fall Folio
    • 2020 Summer Folio
    • 2020 Feb Folio
    • 2021 Feb Folio
  • Feral Parrot : The Blog
  • 2022 Handley Awards
  • INTERVIEWS
  • Inscape Alumni Board
Picture

Rivers from Different Shores

3/26/2019

0 Comments

 

Written by Hoang Luu


Picture
Photo by Sebouh Oshagan
Picture
Photo by Sebouh Oshagan


Narrow roads, yellow blurs and dreamy heat. Chickens fight and toads leap—all of such a noisy abode where people breathe on each other’s breaths. Poet Zubair Ahmed illustrates a copy of our world in his collection City of Rivers.

Dhaka, of Bangladesh, is one of the densest nationalist capitals in the world. As I read Ahmed's compilation of poems, I cannot help but bear witness to a foreign country that is so strikingly similar to my homeland where the same monsoon rain becomes the earth that shares our twin living grounds.

Both of our homelands are brightest when warmed. The sun rises early to dazzle heat upon the crowded walkways, while little shadows are provided by the enclosing rooftops that seem to shake heads with each other like canopies. Chickens flock frightfully and angrily and grotesquely on the battleground as people pitch each against the other. Their wings flap and pound while their beaks bite and grapple at the other’s throat. Laughter and shrills gather round, Dogs bark insanely. The laughs are taunting barks. The smell of lime and herbs, as well as spices and curry, fill the dazzling air. The steamed rice, the fried rice, and the cracked eggs rumble against the town’s yanking sirens and yelling overthrows.

Vietnam and Bangladesh are both politically unstable. Law enforcers are weak-willed, corrupted, or go mindfully astray. Drugs and assaults roam along with the yelling of the populace, while taxi drivers secretly leer at which ways the fare can jump highest. Townsmen gamble; women gamble; the children sleep when the sun is bright yellow.

Ahmed’s, “A Road to the Sky”, beautifully depicts the two countries’ similarities: although the rich and dense populace yell and sing to their neighbors’ ear-walls, there is yet a silent need of deliverance or companionship of love, of kindness, of security. It is interesting that Ahmed uses dark and contrasting diction that evokes an atmosphere of silence, sadness, and madness. All-in-one of the already honest, crowded but energetic dwellers of our two homelands. The images are alluring to the insane frightfulness of reality, such that reality is so sad and deep, as well as remorseful, helpless, hopeless, and dead. It is as though not only the chickens are under water but the people of the land that have been stained by corruption, deception, and poverty are under water too --  so often like a passing bullet. Despite the rich, noisy texture of Vietnam and Bangladesh, Ahmed instills a deep silence with his images of loss and of hopelessness, as if the blood vessels are narrow—narrowly hopeless, hurt, and suffocating in the heart.

The most fascinating aspect of “A Road to the Sky” is the title. I wonder why Ahmed names the piece in such a way, despite the content of luxurious darkness and hopelessness? There is so much “gray” in the poem: “[a]ll the good men are buried.” While vultures eat the flesh of these men, it is as though the speaker is saying that everything is lost, sad, and beyond cure. It is to say that even new sprouts, new life, and new youth cannot even bring civilization to the place:

 Children sell knives at the corner,
 A raven pretends to be a crow

There is nothing helpful that can be done. I am fascinated by the writer’s jesting of sky despite the allures of darkness, gray, and hopelessness,What does it mean when the walking journey ahead will bring you to the sky? Is the sky a haven of paradise? Heavenly? Or, is it a path to escape? To run away from all this—there is a longing for a dwelling -- a longing for wonder, for a dream, and maybe for a hope that ends in safe beauty -- in safe yelling-around. 

I am another river from another distant shore. We meet in that crossing place.


Hoang Luu is a learner and writer of poetry. Hoang writes poems and stories as a hobby. His dream is to contribute to the world one day through poetry, stories, and books that celebrate morality, hope, and humanity. He is a senior at Pasadena City College and is pursuing the fine arts of Creative Writing.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    IMPORTANT NOTE:
    PCC Inscape Magazine, housed at Pasadena City College, is following Coronavirus protocols. At this time our staff continues to read submissions and publish web content. 
     

    Note:

    Blog Posts reflect the opinions of the writer and not the opinions of Pasadena City College or Inscape Magazine Editorial Staff Members.
    Guest Bloggers are invited to submit blog posts of up to 1000 words or pitch a blog series to pccinscape@gmail.com

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    Guest Blogger
    Inscape
    Interview
    Review
    Series
    Short Story

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photo used under Creative Commons from CircaSassy
  • Online Issue No. 10
  • About
    • PCC Inscape Instagram
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • ISSUE ARCHIVE
    • Online Issue No.9
    • 2016 Fall Online
    • 2016 Sppring Online
    • 2017 Fall Online
    • 2017 Print Issue - Manifesto TOC
    • 2018 Fall Print Issue - Frankenstein TOC
    • 2018 FA Frankenstein Companion
    • 2018 Summer Online
    • 2018 Fall Folio - VOTE
    • 2018 Fall Spirituality
    • 2019 Celebrating Dia De Los Muertos
    • 2019 SPR Mental Health Companion >
      • Issue Intro
    • 2019 Fall Folio -- Moon Moon
    • 2019 Fall Folio
    • 2020 Summer Folio
    • 2020 Feb Folio
    • 2021 Feb Folio
  • Feral Parrot : The Blog
  • 2022 Handley Awards
  • INTERVIEWS
  • Inscape Alumni Board