Bite Poem by Malay Roy Choudhury

Bite


India, Sir, how long will you carry on like this, really, I feel awful
India, I ate your jail food forcomplete one month which means for 30 days
No job since September 1964, you know India, would you mind lending me 20 bucks?
India, those guys are very bad, even rats are eating away your grains
What did Suhrawardy advise you in the Control Room India?
O tell me — I am really happy, promise, I can make faces!
And I do not know where Kolkata is hurtling in this bitter renaissance
India, why don't you get a few of my pulp published in Nabokallol magazine
I'll also become saint, or guide us to Santiniketan
We would be servant of literature, you would give me a set of cultural attire
Let us go to country liquor den Khalasitola today evening, we would cook Bengali culture
India, why aren't you exploding an atom bomb,fireball suits the sky!
Do you want to try LSD? Both of us would sunbathe at Nimtala crematoria
India, here, take this handkerchief, wipe your specs
In this election please help me win, I'd contest from Chilika lake
Which lecture of yours is going to be published in tomorrow's newspaper, India?
I have snatched the key from them which keeps you going
India, I surreptitiously read the love letters written to you
Why don't you cut your nails? There are dark patches beneath your eyes
Why don't you apply colour to your teeth these days?
You kill in revenge but blame us for murder when wefollow you
Don't think I am just a cat's paw
How about a self-compromise eating one's own heart
India, withdraw Section 144 of Penal Code from paddy fields
Send all great books to Vietnam, Huh Huh
May be the war will stop
India, tell me what exactly you want! !
(Translation of Kamor)
Hungry Bulletin,26th January 1966.