Lumps Poem by Pradip Chattopadhyay

(1)

They depend on one another
The daughter
Walking her blind father.

(2)

Skin full of prickly heat
He pulls the cycle van
Loaded with pedestal fan.

(3)

He stops before the first bite
Can’t forget
His pariah mate.

(4)

He wants dark clouds’ gloom
For when they break to rain
His hopes will bloom.

(5)

She has no time for the mirror
Works for hours
As the water carrier.

(6)

She hides her pain
Spending herself up
Seems such precious gain.

(7)

Knowledge’s weight on the back
The kid goes to school
Like a yielding mule.

(8)

On her bed the newly wed
May not find the one
For her made.

(9)

The male calf suckles his mother
He doesn’t want to grow up
And be slaughtered.

(10)

The mother fights the trappers’ might
Not knowing their net
Has sealed her chick’s fate.