Kushal Poddar (Voices Within 2023)

Kushal Poddar is 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

 

Out Of Within

 

Death tells my father,

"This is the day of freedom

from any specific shape."

 

My father desires to be

my mother's favourite flower,

but he cannot remember which one.

 

"Freedom from memories too."

Death says.

 

Autumn Camping

 

Everyone has those travel bags.

The doors of the car open near the river.

A bow boat plays a long lone note

on the chordophone water.

Silence summons Autumn.

An invisible slayer sheds the leaves one by one.

 

Because you hide the smoking habit

you have been quitting since your wedding

when she calls from the resort balcony

you begin a wildfire. Soon the evidence of fall

all will go, leaves and land, devil's bridge and

the stones, even the sun. The stars rise;

in the black sky they are the cold bones.

 

We Have That Walk

 

Once the walk is over

I have to be somewhere.

I need not tell her that.

 

The clouds circle the dead

fountain and three gardeners

hovering over one cellphone.

No crow sits on the towers.

They learn how not to shatter existence

in order to watch what lies below.

We can converse about our kin

or exchange our childhoods

while soaking in the rain.

A deflated cardboard box tries

to remember what it had within.

 

I have to be somewhere.

I need not tell her that; she knows.

---

Setu, November 2023 :: Voices Within 2023