Sharad Chandra

I see them everyday
in the street, backyard, shops, houses
shining shoes
filling air in the cycle tubes
...

Some corpses lie motionless
on the shore kissing the sand
where shells used to be
others float unobtrusively
...

A loving husband, loving father
caring and concerned was Bhaskar
a good man, pliant, and polite
easy-going yet unyielding
...

Day after day
morning to evening
doing nothing
thinking a lot
...

The times we live in
have seven disintegrating features
noise, nudity, rape, violence,
terror, technology, and
...

He spends his life crawling
on his hands and knees
in the entrails of a dark tunnel
wading through mud and water
...

When tired of being alone
with myself in my room
I take a walk to look around –
dusty dawn, thirsty birds, lame cows
...

Sun Will Rise

There was light all around
I was happy and satisfied
...

Anticipation

Like sheep
at the approach of a storm
...

Circuit

It is always
the same story—
...

Now that we have super technology
norms of becoming a parent
like everything else
have changed
...

Horses and dogs will wear diapers
men will roam naked
flowers will bloom in meadows
sans butterflies and sparrows
...

We are living in an age of terror
Want, distrust, and worry
Mechanized emotions and
Intellectual stasis –
...

They tried to bury the bodies
but they were everywhere
vultures hovered thick in the skies
dogs gorged on ravenously
...

Let a dog whine
or a cat cross my way
I move on unbothered,
but if milk spills on the floor
...

Early morning the next day
both the brothers had to board
the Flight MH Seventeen
to spend a week with their grandparents
...

When education was
search for truth
acquisition of knowledge,
inculcation of values
...

Coming from a house next to our own
I heard one day
shrill cries, swearings and muffled groans
thumps and bumps and shrieks, and thunder
...

Ask the birds not to chirp
the bees to stop buzzing
the trees to stop swaying
their leaves make a harassing noise
...

O Death!
Grant me a cell
So that I can live in peace
Life is too noisy.
...