PRANAB GHOSH

PRANAB GHOSH

A TRIBUTE TO THE LORD

No one wanted him

To climb up the tree.

No one expected him

To do so.

There were no beauties

To be observed from there!

Still He did.

Was he bored with the

Ground beneath his feet?

Or did He find it

SHAKING?

Still he did.

He spotted the arrow

COME.

He could see it in slow motion

ALMOST.

But He did not move.

He did not even try to

STOP it.

Then He was gone.

DEAD?

THE KISS OF DEATH

You roll your tongue

In poison

And you kiss

You roll your tongue

In a sugary syrup

And you kiss

You roll your tongue

In a buttery soup

And you kiss

Now you have a dead

Lover

Then you get a healthy

Son

Now what did you get?

Butter dripping from

TONGUE

Sugar dripping from

TONGUE

Poison dripping from

TONGUE

Your love; your death;

Your life?

Did you ever live?

CHILDREN OF THE EARTH

They lived here

ONCE

At the outskirts of the

Village

Near that mound of earth

Close to the forests.

They had always been

HUNGRY

They had always been

POOR

They had always lived

The life

Of an

OUTCAST

The inclusive policy of the State

Ended up excluding them from

LIFE!

They died after

Eating DEAD cows.

PRANAB GHOSH

PRANAB GHOSH is a journalist, poet, author and translator. He has three published books to his credit. Air and Age (co-author; published from Kolkata), Soul Searching and Other Poems (first solo book of poems, published from Toronto) and Bougainvillea And Other Stories, a book of short stories in English, translated from the Bengali original. His poems have been published and accepted in Tuck Magazine, Dissident Voice, Literature Studio Review, Scarlet Leaf Review, Leaves of Ink, Harbinger Asylum, Visual Verse, Spillwords, The Piker Press, The Weasel Press and Hans India among others. He is married and at present lives in Vijayawada.