Playing Cricket was praying
Five times at once.

Every evening after 
We all gather in the school ground
Like a different sets of animals
Around the watering hole
In Serengeti.

Some playing Hockey
Some Football
Some doing nothing, reading, watching
Some predators.

We both were sweating rather drenching.
We jump in the swimming pool.
My fear of water and drowning came over me.
He knew.

He held my arm and waist and made me swim.
Coming back home at dusk
He looked around.

Under a mango tree
He held my face in his palms
And put his lips on mine.

Fragrance of freshly dropped rain on hot earth
Surged in my palate
I was tasting cloud.

“ That’s how you kiss a girl.”
He whispered in my ear.

—	Ifti Nasim: “A Boy Taught Me How to Kiss a Girl”