Poetry: Evil Elders by Iftekhar Sayeed

evil elders

 

I must learn evil

from my elders

who are evil

 

born under evil

over fifty years

ago

 

born under foreign

yoke

they learned evil

from their masters

 

they learned

to reject our ways

and yet

retain our ways

 

such as learning

from elders

not contradicting

them

respecting

them

 

when they preach

before my bowed

head

that we are equal

for so the white

man had said

Iftekhar Sayeed teaches English. He was born and lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has contributed to The Danforth Review, Axis of Logic, Enter Text, Postcolonial Text, Southern Cross Review, Opednews.com, Left Curve, Mobius, Erbacce, Down In The Dirt, The Fear of Monkeys and other publications. He is also a freelance journalist.