Friday, 22 September 2023

Four Poems by Kushal Poddar

 



The Ancestral Serpent Hibernates

 

The colonial shutters

show the x-ray vision

of the room's ribcage.

 

The silhouette time

tilts towards the midday.

A bit of wind trapped within

the chest of the house

buzzes around on its

blue wings' translucence. 

 

You have to be one with the bricks.

Breathe in slowly. Breathe out.

 

 

Club Underground

 

A pighead DJ

played colours for 

some masked figures 

dancing. As I pass one 

she asks, "What are you

supposed to be? A human?"

 

No mask on my face, I didn't 

know, my friend would bring me here.

Am I one these days though? 

A performing human?

 

 

The railings

 

I have left the balcony's door open

again not on purpose or as a ritual.

The timber panel lingers on the skin 

of my hands. This is how my mind 

would have felt like if I could hold 

it physically, but my hands 

would have slackened the grip, slipped 

and sank in the blue between 

the memories' ruins.

 

Now I hear the noise of the void.

The late night opens and shuts. 

The door breathes. My closed eyes 

follow a graph of the summer wind. 

Thudders rustle. Like a blind I see 

the dark, stars and my long gone cousin

learning to smoke leaning on 

the decayed railings before his fall.

 

 

The Way We Realise the Facts About Our Families

 

The members of my clan

stood tall. They were 

the book covers, movie posters. 

Mother had a tale for everyone

featuring everyone.

 

In the second half of my life 

my cousins and our family friends

sleep through my soccer final. 

I play alone for both teams.

Sleep, it seems, come easily to them

even after five cups of coffee a day. 

 

I often turn to see them 

tiny in the gallery,

and hear mother cheering.

Her voice is foghorn.








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, published across the globe. 

Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe


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