Pranab Ghosh |
A river came to meet me
Then a bird
The river asked me my address
The bird wanted me to sing
Then the ocean came and
An albatross flew in.
I saw a ship cruising in the ocean
An ancient mariner on it.
I stopped him from killing
The albatross
Then the river disappeared
The bird flew away
And the albatross circled
Above my head.
I looked up and saw a mountain white
From the snowy peak of which
The river began her journey.
Where are you going? I ask the river.
I get a giggle for an answer.
And then I dive into her
And wash away all my sorrows
She caressed my soul and
Whispered into my ears,
“Save me, I am dying.”
And I write a long letter to the
Ministry of Environment
Then I woke up and looked for the letter
Will the river be dredged now?
She speaks to me everyday!
***
An Ant Historian’s Last Chronicle!
The biggest rally to secure food
Since the rains damaged our den
At a north Kolkata suburb
Was disrupted as an invincible
Force crushed hundreds
Of us to unceremonious death.
The dead bodies were crumpled
Up and swept away by the
Revolving breeze on the top
Of a plateau 30 miles north
To our den. The sources of death
Could not be immediately ascertained.
However, no chemicals were used
This time to effect the mass extinction
And the source of the food was
Left undisturbed. This has been
A single, irregular history of
Mass death that partially
Affected, at first, our
Food securing mission as
Hundreds of our industrious
Workers were wiped out
In matter of seconds, as a
High pressure from above
Crushed us to death.
The forward party had found an
Unsecured source of food
Around the midnight of Wednesday
And since we began to stock food
From that source to tide over the
Emergency situation that our
Waterlogged den and washed
Away food stocks have
Brought on us.
But around early dawn of the next day
A repressive, brute force pounced on us
From the skies and we died a dog’s death.
Our leaders, however, were undeterred
And ordered us to restore the securing
Of food ignoring the mass killing
As no ‘regulation’ destruction
Method could be identified
As sources of our deaths.
We were carrying on with
Our business as usual and
Regrouping in the land of
Massacre when the second
And successive many attacks
Came from the skies, killing
More of us in hundreds.
However, our industrious
Brethren carried on with
Their work of securing the
Food, amidst this brutal
Murder of our many workers.
Whoops! Whoops! Unbearable
Pressure on my head and whole
Body. A great weight! We are
Getting crushed by it. Pasted to death!
This is the last report I am filing
From the killing fields! But our leaders
Have not budged, given the crisis
At home. They have instructed
Us to carry on with the work
Of securing the food!
Bye comrades! Adieu!
Preserve this dispatch as a
Vital document and try to
Analyse the reason behind
The mass death on the plateau
On Thursday morning!
Whoops! Adieu! Adieu!
Bio: Pranab Ghosh is a journalist, writer, poet, translator and blogger.
He runs a blog “Existential Problems” (pranabomkar.wordpress.com). His poems
and prose piece have been published and accepted by Dissident Voice,
Spillwords, The Piker Press, Setu Magazine, Pangolin Review, Visual Verse,
Memoryhouse, Tuck Magazine, Transendent Zero Press, Scarlet Leaf Review,
Literature Studio Review, Leaves of Ink, Hans India, etc. He has co-authored a
book of poems, titled Air & Age. He has to his credit a translation of a
book of Bengali short stories. The title of the English translation is Bougainvillea and Other Stories. His
second book of poems and first solo book “Soul Searching and Other Poems”
(2017) has been published by Scarlet Leaf Publishing, Toronto.
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