One Roti Only
Thousands of faces, thousands of frowns
Nothing to eat, no water in sight, the Ganga is dry
Yet this earth is seas of water
Yet this world is one roti.
***
Kiss
Buddha in the bed room, so is Lenin, so is Marx, my dear
I cannot kiss you; please remove at least one from there.
***
Night
It will be night; do you know how it becomes night
The girl was arrogant but the face little down.
The boy was arrogant. Pride suits him well too.
Now it will be dark. Night descends on their wings.
Land
We were students, Tolstoy was teacher
The college is a haunted house, promoter wants land.
***
[Subodh Sarkar is a Kolkata-based Indian poet. His first book of poems was published in the 1970’s and now he has 31 books to his credit. He recently participated in the IWP, University of Iowa as a Fulbright fellow. He is a recipient of the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award (New Delhi), Gangadhar National Award for Poetry (Sambalpur University) and Bangla Academy Award (Kolkata). He is now the Chairman of Kobita Academy, Kolkata. Sarkar is the editor of Bhashanagar, a Bengali culture magazine with occasional English issues. He was the guest editor of Indian Literature, New Delhi. He teaches English at City College, Kolkata.]