News From The Grey Valley
His children try to solve
the jigsaw puzzle of a body cremated.
Kin stand around as if the young ones are
an old valley and they are tall buildings,
windows all shut. They form
a sacred circle for them.
Far from here the chamber sizzles,
busy, delivering.
Sanity
My daughter dances on the bed.
The music is older than me. I heard
it before. I lift her, settle her
on the floor. Our grey cat trades
the places. I ask my father
if he likes it here now. He never liked
his own house when he lived.
Please let me talk aloud, Sanity.
Dead ones talk little. I have to
talk for two. My daughter begins giggling.
I join her. The cat jumps off the bed
and leaves, the corpse of Reason
dangling from its maws.
Dusk's Cube
A sudden crow,
my shadow on its beak,
hauls the room away
from me.
Now I
stand in the year's back alley.
I say, 'I don't smoke,"
to a junkie, and then
we, together with silence,
saunter to the stream, pink and grey
in this Sun.
On the highway of the wind
an avalanche of halcyon void
stalls the traffic of the leaves.
They wait for the news from the sea,
hundreds of miles away. They wait
for the sky to begin an operation.
The clouds hold back the cold.
The trees shadow the valley's hem.
A monk chimes the bells of a monastery.
The ripples reverberate in the dark.
The lights can be seen from the summit.
One of the leaves turns, "Did you read
the leaflet? A new year began today."
One of the leaves turns, "Didn't
a year begin today?" Thus it institutes;
I jog midst the fog of a sweeper's
handwork. The sweeper gathers
all the beer bottles and cans he can.
The recycle man gives him enough for one.
One down, his evening becomes
one long call in loop. His girl adjusts
her clothes in the end, "When will
you return? The village has changed."
His silence whistles; the sea of the leaves
rustles; the ships of the buildings sail far.
(click on photos & artwork to enlarge)
Kushan Poddar the author of 'A White Cane For The Blind Lane' and 'How To Burn Memories Using a Pocket Torch' has ten books to his credit. He is a journalist, father of a four-year-old, illustrator, and an editor. His works have been translated into twelve languages and published across the globe.
