Poetry: Pranab Ghosh

Pranab Ghosh

Mission: Rescue...!

I learnt about Diana's Tree* the other day,

While travelling in a suburban train.

I fell in love with...

 

The tree?

The poet?

The time she belonged to...?

 

Or...?

 

I counted the time...

I did not use my watch...

But palms of my hands...

 

The burnt remains of civilisation...

My origin...

My roots...

I consigned to the Ganges

And...

Walked away without looking behind...!

This was days before...

Days...

Months...

Years...

Now...,

 

But...

 

Ashes do not ask questions.

Neither do they fly across your face...,

But settles peacefully in the earth that holds us...

You and me

... and all of us...!

...Holds us close to her...

To each other...

 

That earth is losing her grip on us...

So I felt and longed to touch...

The Diana’s Tree...!

... It can only be felt...!

... can also be seen...?

But, felt...

Your ‘wisdom’ the ‘sensory organ’...!

 

Still...

Still I wanted to fall in love with the Tree...

Still I wanted to be with...

No,

Not

The

Tree,

But You, You, You,

Who has lost her way in the myriad

Desires of ‘wolfish’ jest,

And rescue You, You, You...

From the ‘clutches’ of the ‘beasts’ that have made the ‘civilisation’ bleed since it’s very inception...!

Very inception...

Yes,

Very inception...!

Yet, even today, we fail, and miserably so,

To thwart their evil design...

To numb them out of ‘business’...!

But instead, coyly succumb...,

Driven by our ‘greed’...

 

But not me...

Not me...

Not me...

So, I swear by all the dead souls...

To rescue You

You...

You...

You...

And before I do so...

I want to look back once

At the Diana’s Tree

 

What if I have fallen in love with..., as I was looking at...?

What if...

What if...?

 

That’s nothing to do with my ‘mission’...

 

I will rescue You

From the ‘clutches’ of the ‘wolves’!

Go

And

Ask

The

Diana’s Tree

She will also tell you the...

SAMe thing!!!

Or will she not?!!!

 

Why don’t you check out?

Please!

 

*Diana’s Tree is a collection of short poems by Alejandra Pizarnik (April 29, 1936 – Sept 25, 1972), a poet born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Simply put ‘Diana’s Tree’ (the Tree itself) is a ‘sort of’ ‘mythical’ tree!

********************************

This is Not a Poem!

The rust’s falling off

The scalpel

Still in use!!!

 

This is no mad doc’s diary...

Mind you..., but...,

 

What?

 

This is an ‘anonymous’ grievance-redressal log book!

 

‘They’ve raped her to death...

‘They’ve used ‘fake drugs’ to kill...

‘They have sold available vacancies to ‘nonentities’...

‘They’ve...’

 

The endless entries are written in blood and tears!

 

Yet...

Yet...

Yet...

 

What?

 

“It takes time to change things!

“Be patient...

“Be calm...

“Do not make any noise...

“Do not protest...

“And

“This is a must...

“Do not disrupt!

 

“Got it?

“Got it?

“Got it?

 

“We are doing everything in our capacity...

“...It takes time...

You know!”

 

Tears and sighs have...

In the meanwhile

Swamped ‘localities’ and dried up ‘lives’!

Many have become ‘living dead’!

 

‘Please’!!!

 

“Patience please!”

“Patience please!”

...

‘But for how long?’

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Poems by Pranab Ghosh

Author’s note: The emotions here are triggered by the ‘incidents’ taking place, perhaps with far greater frequency than desired in a ‘civilised’ society, in which we live here, at Kolkata, a metropolitan city, in West Bengal, India.

 

Author’s Bio: Pranab Ghosh is an award-winning journalist, author and poet. His latest books of poems, Karma Cola (Impspired.com, UK) and Love, Religion & Politics (Virasat, Kolkata) had been published in 2023. His other three books of poems are, Air & Age... (2016), Soul Searching and Other Poems (2017, Scarletleaf Publishing LLP, Toronto, Canada) and Vision of the World and Other Poems (Impspired.com, UK). His poems and short stories have been published by several magazines, e-mags and anthologies, including Indian Literature, Piker Press, Dissident Voice, Setu Bilingual Magazine, Memoryhouse, Impspired.com, etc., brought out by publishers world over. He, at present, lives in Kolkata, West Bengal.

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Setu, May 2025