Embrace Love
by Shamsul Islam
They call it the love campaign.
We called it the last embrace.
They say we are the happiest people in the world.
Because we are denied our pain.
She could have been my sister.
He could have been my brother.
She could have been my lover.
Me, running towards her.
I wonder what he whispered to her.
Before dust filled his lungs.
I wonder what she saw last.
Before darkness took over.
Why did he not rescue her?
Why can’t we be heroes too?
Do our deaths have to be helpless too?
Crumbling dreams vanishing in dust.
Shamsul Islam is a Bangladeshi-American filmmaker based in New York. He worked on “Blood Soaked Banner of Phulbari,” a documentary on the Phulbari people’s movement in Bangladesh.
আলাল ও দুলাল | ALAL O DULAL 
I cannot comprehend the relevance of the young live coupled in this poem and the heading.
Your poem moved me.
I only saw it because facebook showed it to me. Not sure exactly what tenuous connection you and i share.
Someone else on FB posted a link to this article, and i was struck by the similarity between your poetic conclusions and the more prosaic ones of the researcher:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=201128359
Small world? Perhaps. Certainly a strange one.
Hi Ira.
I am happy this poem founds its way to you, whatever the connection might be. And thank you for the link, it’s quite interesting.
Reblogged this on atthecenters/attheedges and commented:
Nicely juxtaposed.