Monday 12 June 2023

Three Poems by Kushal Poddar





I Couldn't Catch That

 

From some drawer a chronograph

I forgot beeps one o'clock.

The concept of AM and PM eludes me.

The meds aid to forget. Their purpose

is peace, albeit sometimes

it would have been nice to remember 

if I have watered the garden

or if it has rained today. The watch beeps

again. What does trigger that function?

I cannot remember if I need a reason,

if I desire its guidance.

I hear my old man fart in the room adjacent.

His phone's AI comes alive, asks, "I

couldn't catch that. Will you like to know

the time now?" It seems nice to know certain things,

and then memory touches my heart- my father

has expired last spring. 

 

 

Enamel

 

My buddy Pat has that

enamel mug

from his railway days

he still carries

for some coffee and eggs.


I lean against my knees

grin, "A train-track cowboy."

The morning ambles past

our flesh sorted inside our shades.

 

I admire the thin azure line

throbbing around the mug's mouth

as if it knows the secret 

shall be spilled in spite of its vigilance. 

 

Here all roving begins to form 

and surrenders to the formlessness.

We lie supine. The sky claws us blind.

Earth and dirt buzz like utility lines. 

 

 

Emergency Benevolence



On the day of my daughter's

third birthday we emerge

from a mid-tier inn, all tired.

I display on my cheeks a shade

of red deeper than I my usual.

My debit card has revealed

an unbalanced jaywalk across

this life we've been cast in,

and hence I can feel no pain

when a sedan leaving the parking

runs over my toes semi-sheathed

in faux leather footwears.

My daughter shrieks, cries, mumbles

something we can decode

even without hearing. Later after she

falls asleep, and the panic settles,

and the post-coitus boudoir holds

my wife, dozed off, and me crumbling

in a desire to fix everything everywhere.






Kushal Poddar, the author of 'Postmarked Quarantine' has eight books to his credit. He is a journalist, father, and the editor of 'Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into twelve languages. Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe


 

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