Monday, 10 June 2024

Five Poems by Kushal Poddar

 



The Bunny Bones

 

The rain plays the leaves, grass.

Noise sats so. Our skin swallows 

the pour. We, two blinds, drunkard

because of one death and a separation,

stumble upon a skull I claim as 

some rabbit's, pick it up, drop it. 

 

The noise decorates the land 

in the eggshells Raden. The rain fades.

Our footsteps crackle. Two eyes

burn the dark. From the height

we can say that it is a small beast.

We turn, see no skull. It returned 

for the bones. I murmur.

Happy Easter weekend. You say

remembering the death

and how two worlds separate. 

 

 

Who Told You About That Kind of Love

 

Her boyfriend sings a song

at the concert they drives in,

unplanned. His song lasts more

than those five minutes the band

plays it on the stage.

 

A jet drowns the noises, and then

the moon emerges through the chem trail.

Distance steals the speed and the craft.

"Say your prayers." He whispers.

 

Drums roll the prayers.

The morning next set for a breakfast

with me spreads an unending

newspaper. I run the knife across

a 'Why Not!' egg waiter brings in

while I wait. Patience flows

dark orange, almost red.

 

 

The Dark

 

After a while I see the pattern-

she apologizes, and

a lightning flash, muted behind

our thick panes, highlights 

what dark keeps safe.

 

There rolls a purposeless wheel.

The tree that bends to survive

doesn't miss the beats.

One bird's flesh, hissing and burnt,

leaves its mark on the path.

The fragments of its nest we see

only for one jiffy, and then the sky darkens.

 

My sister says, "Sorry."

I turn my head towards the window.

My blood seeks the tilt on the floor.

 

 

The Story So Far

 

1.

 

They ask me if I may

help with a quick sketch 

from my memory of the one

I trusted last time. I turn my head

 

as if someone stands 

behind me, no one.

 

2.

 

The glass and gems 

found on the floor all share 

the origin, a mirror. 

The fracture occurred long ago.

Now the investigators notice the shards.

 

3.

 

If they stare at them

even if they do not piece the puzzle

together the slivers and scraps 

will mirror the face I trusted last.

 

4.

 

Lift the yellow tapes, unseal the lock,

enter in the beating heart.

The fledgling has left some water signs

on the polished mud yard.

 

The cardiac muscles display my tribal art.

One need not interpret, conclude,

if he harks the silence, 

diastole and systole, and the call 

of a mother bird.

 

 

Gently Bleed

to David Lewis

 

Your tangled fingers, matured guitar

that suffers from amnesia 

and also stammers, and you star 

the show stars don't show up 

as the audience. The night rushes in 

some clouds instead, and they 

adore drums more, look bored

until you forget the minor, triad, power;

the capo drops somewhere in the dark,

and you begin to strum the crossroad

of life's curses and blessings.

The rain extinguishes the spotlight.

The percussionist although green, 

makes up for their short lives with their zeal.

 

The distant hills running to see the city

again, halt here beside the smoke of the dead fire.

A guitarist, solo and wet, plays his life

with fingers whitened. 

 

 


 

Kushal Poddar - The author of 'Postmarked Quarantine' and 'How To Burn Memories Using a Pocket Torch' has nine books to his credit. He is a journalist, father of a four-year-old, illustrator, and an editor. His works have been translated into twelve languages and published across the globe. 

Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe


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