Voices Within: Raja Chakraborty

Born in Kolkata, Raja Chakraborty did his masters in English Literature from Calcutta University. He is presently working in a very senior capacity in West Bengal Revenue Service. He has published three critically acclaimed books of Bengali rhymes and a book of English poems titled The Soup Bowl And Other Poems which is his debut collection of English Poems.

Children Of Destiny :

She was a child of mistakes

Or so thought the bodies

That made her

And dumped her with leftovers

In a roadside bin

But as luck would have it

Or destiny

She survived the cold night

And thirty years

To be a mother of her

Own children

No mistakes she murmured

As she looked at their

Innocent smile

And cried a solitary tear

For two unknown faces

Of Dreams And Betrayals :

I washed my hair in rose water

For you. But you did not come.

The man who came with scissors

To chop the locks was not you.

I put bindi on my forehead and

Lavender behind my ears for

You. But you did not come. The

Man who came and blotched

The bindi all over my face was

Not you.

I draped my first red sari carefully

And waited by the window for you.

But you did not come. The man who

Came with brutal hands to tear it

Off my body was not you.

Tell me how many of You are there.

Tell me how many of You will molest

My dreams and not see my tears.

Tell me how many times I have to die

In your hands to find you.

 Old Age Home Birthdays :

half a candle

flame limping

stood shaking on

the plum cake

few faded ribbons

pulled out from

the drawer lent

some color

blurred images looked

 back from yellow

photographs

someone strumming

You Have A Friend

in the next building

drunk in that thought

blowing out the candle

I stood in darkness

and whispered

happy birthday

to the mirror

Ripples

she spoke

soft like a lullaby

pearl shaped syllables

forming at the tip of her lips

rolled down on my cheeks

a stream of mid-summer

rain drops serenade

washed away by

the wind before

fingers could

touch them

and since

I sing her songs

in words of wild flowers

plucked from her tree she

had planted in my valley

with her feet walking

the river of dreams

under a moonlit

night sky

once

Voices Within - Complete List of Poets :: Setu, January 2019