Ajit Das Poems

At the road side corner beneath the hanging balcony
of the abandoned, dilapidated building
she lives alone, weaving baskets, seeking to sell them
to the passers-by; and she has been doing this
...

She is in her early playing teens,
uprooted from the scenic setting
of her village home nestling against
a huge sheltering mango grove,
...

Have you ever noticed
how laughter metamorphoses
in its flight over a face?

...

Why all these striving, hankering, when you can see
the clear sign of future shape of things unfolding
in their allotted places destined by your waning days?
The journey is now downhill from all that was youthful,
...

It was the rush hour,
commuters were pouring in through the gate,
jostling on the platform to board the train –
there was chaos all around.
...

Tell me frankly: where does love dwell?
Confident, you’ll reply: deep in the heart.
But, then, they claim you may be wrong.
Love has departed, clambering up the neck,
...

Cold knife of revenge
strikes in the cover of dark.
Corrosive force of betrayal
treads behind the mask.
...

A room looks empty in the engulfing dark,
but the morning light streaming in reveals the decor:
chairs, desk, bed, tapestries filling the space
with subtle touches of taste and elegance -
...

They say life is glorious, abundant –
an amazing gift of God.

But do they know how damning it is
...

What is the voice of humanity?
Is it shaped, modulated only by one faith
or by a confluence of faiths?
Is God perceived in a particular way
...