May 27~ IBRAR SAMI

Welcome to SHINE, poetry fans. Today we're putting the spotlight on a Bangladeshi writer who goes by the pen name, Ibrar Sami. Please enjoy his two poems:  "Lost Promises" and "The Story of A Melancholy Wall." Thank you, Ibrar, for sharing your words.

Lost Promises

The sun was sinking swiftly,
orange light spilling everywhere
with an invitation of sorrow--
on a late December afternoon,
at dusk.
Then--
just as the winter migratory birds
began arriving at Chikli Beel,
you wished so deeply
to play in the water with the birds,
yet you had no friend
to swim with you
in the lake.
You often told me
of this regret.
But back then
we did not know each other,
not even in play.
One day you proposed--
let’s meet,
let’s know each other,
let’s speak our hearts
openly,
on a fog-draped December evening.
On such an evening
as the migratory birds stir waves on water,
we would sit together on the bank
watching their rituals of love
all day long.
Within the thick fog
there seemed a hidden grace.
Even the silence
nestled by the hills
seemed to hold a language.
The unknown shadow
that slips quietly under the sun--
perhaps even it
holds a secret leisure.
But under the bare sky,
does the line of loss
ever come to an end?
Clouds keep moving on
across the empty sky,
as though the wind carries
their loosened, unbound hair.
On the windowpane
your reflection waits in solitude,
standing at the border of neglect
at day’s end--
and I understand
you are not coming back.
Yet—you did come!
And in the irony of your arrival
I stopped, stunned,
longing for exile
in the wide horizon.
Then! Then--
time passed, many years slipped by.
Do you still
remember me now?
Looking at the sky today
I see the orange glow fade,
December’s last light
slowly dissolving
into the winter mist.
And even now
I stand beside the window
placing my hand silently
on the cold glass--
inside and out
only the shadow of endless silence.
With eyes like frozen peaks of pain
I keep whispering
the story of a closed window--
a story you will hear
again tomorrow.

The Story of A Melancholy Wall

​In the busy city
on the wall of a weary building
I come to write
the tale of a tired day--
arriving at the late afternoon.
Suddenly, seeing you,
I pause--
what scribbles you have drawn
on this wall of melancholy,
in the language of rebellion.
Sunlight ripples
through the mist,
the sky of fear
bursts in silent cries,
without a sound.
Standing in the crowded street
I quietly read
the story of this melancholy wall--
hidden in graffiti
an unfinished history.
Yet, in the desert of memory
unknown anxieties accumulate,
even today on the wall
new scars--
flooding the depths of the heart
like a silent wave.
One day, the damp grains dry in the sun,
leaving behind
a strange echo
of melancholy,
a long, mysterious tale.
At day’s end
when I look at myself--
I see, I am
an incomplete wall,
and on my surface
the final line of language
has yet to be written.

Ibrar Sami's poetry and reflective prose explore memory, time, silence, and human resilience, often through abstract imagery and philosophical undertones. A cancer survivor, his creative voice is shaped by personal suffering, recovery, and the quiet strength of intimate relationships. His work blends inner emotional landscapes with understated social and political awareness. His poems have appeared in international journals including the UK-based Ink, Sweat and Tears, the Chile-based Ultramarine Literary Review, and the US platform Navy Pen. "Endless Afternoon" is forthcoming in the US-based Gabby & Min’s Literary Review, while "The Wound of Silent Scars" earned third place in an international Flash Poetry Challenge. He has also been accepted for publication in Big Thinking Publishing’s upcoming issue of Poems, Tales & Other English Words.

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