Shahbag: Re-Dedication to The NOW Generation

I wrote this as a dedication in my 2010 book The Bangladesh Poet of Impropriety without knowing what is in store for the fate and future of Bangladesh. Looking back at the book and this poem, I can only say that I have never been infected by a 'age related bias' and have never treated the youngest of young as anything more than my equals.

There is no worthwhile formula to forecast the future. But Bob Dylan tells us "you don't need to be a weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blowing". Thus the only way we can forecast with a chance of accuracy, is listen to the young around us, the NOW generation and NOT on our terms, but on terms they decide upon.

Shahbag Projonnmo Resistance is an eye-opener, a wake up call that tells us 'the old, the dishonest, the patronizing and the fossilized' - that it is time not just to pay lip service to the NOW but to act upon them as the NOW are only but an extension of our dreams, our aspirations, as much as they are our own belief and conviction. There is absolutely no time for us versus them - it is either us -or  nothing.

Make no mistake  they are not the 'new' generation - they are the NOW generation!

Thanks

Mac

by Mac Haque

To the NOW generation

let the throbs of your hearts

and actions be LOUD enough

to scare the life and ‘ox-faeces’ out

of those that have scared you

over generation after useless generations

into this no-hope, no-win situation

To the NOW generation

time will forever be on your side

if you care to be sublime

and take one day at a time

for life isn’t an instant dream

or merely aspiring for the ‘mainstream’.

If there is still a fight left in you

do so with your head held high

for this Nation has had enough of

gun talks and knife talks and threat talks

and you guyz need to correct that

and engage them folks

With shock talk and ROCK TALK

and any other talk that I still haven’t learnt……

....heck I aint no teacher, preacher, ‘role model’,

or a moral policeman!

If you have to do anything

and move things forward

do it NOW

for you are the NOW generation

and no one can do it better than you

and there has never been a better time

for us than NOW

Let your instincts guide you

to the truth

to reality

to glory

VICTORY

and MUCH MUCH more

\m/

Uttara, January, 2010