dear sir from dhaka bangladesh i have

read your story in the internet

 

of your father’s land that you inherited

when you were only five

 

and now the river that ran through this

property has eroded the bank

 

all the way to your front door

and you’ve been forced to sell this

 

land which no longer has any use

you feel that your father’s labor has been

 

negated as you grew into it

i am sorry that life demands that which

 

it has no intention of reciprocating

empathy being a balanceless virtue

 

it gets messy the handoff from

generation to generation

 

you choose what you want to remember

you choose what you want to protect

 

the river between fathers and children

will widen too already hasn’t it

 

some things yawn and others

fester but you have held up your end

 

i am an ocean away but yes i have

small affection and yours is

 

wider than any river point it forward

and drier than any river you’d rather

 

redirect i am praying that

this opportunity to redraw the borders

 

will prove fruitful for you

your children taught to inhabit the

 

muscle of conflict and loss head on

may your own legacy be at all times

 

ripening