Raja Chakraborty
It was a hot day. Stiflingly so. An unforgiving midsummer sun blazed from the cloudless sky, burning everything in its wake. Few blades of grass, brave enough to struggle still, was slowly turning to brown from a dull yellow.
Cracks opened up in the parched earth, like dried wounds...
THE LIGHT SINKS LOW
Here, the light sinks low
as a meandering river,
into the threshold of my windows
when I bake half-grown weeds.
My nails are black with smoke.
I clean the air around me
with my overgrown hair.
My kitchen sink is on the other side
of the green balcony.
It tells me the story of a...
Title: In Failure and In Ruins
Author: Mark Bolsover
Publisher: Into the Void Press
Pages: 52
Format: Paperback
Price: 10$
Reviewed by Koushik Sen
Mark Bolsover’s book of experimental prose-poetry can elicit mixed reactions from the readers and critics alike, nothing new in that. The present volume is a collection of images put together, and you...
BLOOD
1
I see the blood
in hands of others
faces of others
smeared like fog
or smog,
I lift myself from clouds
a thin line wavers
as I walk into the existence
of blood
2
I ask questions
the voice is silent
asks questions
can you rape an eight
year old, six months
the voice is silent
of course, only at
the cost of blood
3
I saw a...
Russ Bickerstaff
A woman’s feet had come to rest in front of an intersection. A sports car drove by followed rapidly by a semi-truck with an advertisement for beer on the side of it. She didn’t notice it because she was looking at the glowing screen she held in her...
The Touch
Last night I woke up
to a dream. Foam in the sea
trying to catch time
in myriad forms;
my limbs drenched in waves
my hands outstretched.
A dream touching
the timeless
Alone
The street lights greet me in benevolence
when I look at the night
with a watchman’s eye.
Traffic pauses to think
how busy the road is,
and I become...
Bipranarayan Bhattacharyya
Darwin’s theory of evolution was one of the greatest scientific achievements of the Victorian period. However, the theory, with its emphasis on the fact of constant transformations in organisms in course of the struggle for survival, was also received in an opposite way in some quarters. Instead of...
Birds
Every star has a crack
This is how the flash
releases the radiance
of living things
To make sense of this
is to know that
a bird’s migration is
the stars magnetic draw
the conveyor from North
to South and back again.
This generates a bright effect
on our lives
because birds are a testament
to the lightness of innocence
to the graceful...
the authenticity of my butt
i now hear that
the authenticity of my butt
is in question
who are these doubters, these trolls
naysaying, behind anonymity
well, i stand here today
and tell you my butt is authentic
unadultered, genuine american male ass
this is not some cheap foreign knock off
no booty magic here, no $5000 enhancements
no fat...
The Final Draft
I've started living after my death!
I was killed
Some four years back—
Stabbed and drowned!
’Twas a shallow stream;
I quivered out,
(Ah! Blessed ghoul!)
Was yet again
Earth-bound
With the hope
Of new love
And assassins
For my carcass soul!
I've lived and died
Many times
In my secular half
And your non-religious (w)hole!
Faced umpteen deaths,
Say, in Mohenjodaro,
And in the Mayan...
Title: After Dark
Publisher: Vintage Books, London (2004)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Translator: Jay Rubin
Pages: 201
Format: Paperback
Reviewed by Pinaki Dewan
In After Dark by Haruki Murakami, the two sisters—Eri and Mari show a different mode of deviation from normal sleep habits. The elder, Eri, sleeps away all of her time, by ‘all’ I assert...
GALLERIES IN THE NIGHT
Abandoned by all kindly lights
To gnash their teeth
In penumbras of their own making,
What half-bitten talk
Peoples the dark galleries
Between masterpiece and masterpiece,
Restrained from lawless combat
By gilt-edged police
Or the garth of mortar?
The greatest allegories of art
Are secret journals kept
By that gossip Night
Whom no historian of art consults
As they...