Poem -3 (5.2)

  Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 5, Number 2. November 2022. ISSN: 2581-7094


Quest to life (জীবন সঙ্গমে)

--- Subhra Kanti Kar

 

I rose from the ashes once again,

The downpour washed away all your fiery voices,

With a broken heart I await in the lifeless station,

The train takes me away into an unknown destiny searing the darkness beyond,

The paths dilute into confusion yet I move on,

Your insular money-mindedness reminds me of the hyena’s lust,

In the industry of selfishness twisting this society, my voice craves utterance,

No matter how much I try, breathless I stand suffocated by serpentine clenches

As the coffin carrier travels this city, the neighbour's newborn lets out her first cry

 

 

The sinister nightmare (ভয়ঙ্কর দুঃস্বপ্ন)

--- Subhra Kanti Kar

 

Talking numbs me these days,

What I see, what is heard, mums me; crutches on my mind

I shut the doors and windows, let no voice escape

Storm rages beyond, reckless, slowly it ravages

They shout a democracy, yet there are silences

The reserves are depleting, awaiting bankruptcy,

Every breath kills us, no voices raise us,

Jailing their conscience, they throttle us

Oh king can you sleep in peace anymore?

In the land where beggars may, your wealth shouts encore

 

 

Deflowers before blossoming ( বাসী খবর )

---Subhra Kanti Kar

For a bowl of rice,

She wandered nightly, down the lanes of the hungry metropolis,

Tired, helpless, slept she listless,

A tiny babe without a childhood.

Her father had left her, her mom eloped,

But what never left her was hunger,

And the lustful paws which preyed on her nightly,

The dawn with its golden rays kisses the city's havens

Gradually Nature gathers round her frailty

A line of blood trails down her thighs diluting into the city's lanes

She deflowers before her blossoming

Comes the heads, comes the leaders,

Stories get printed, stories get posted,

For sometime

Then she vanishes under the weight of breaking news,

Reminds us all, she was an urchin, not a millionaire.



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


Interliminal Encounters: Indian and Australian writers in po(i)etic dialogue, eds Amelia Walker and Aden Burg