Southern Summer Winds
Listen to Sonnet Mondal
Light summer winds
Arise from the trails of grey winter…
Cool, warm wafts overlap
Pull us into shades of sunlight,
Into mugs of red wine,
Fruit juices in crawling darkness;
Dots appear in dreams
Of clear nostalgia.
Above, the moon hasn’t grown old,
The Ever-youth museum preserves memories.
Sounds rotate above head,
Too slippery to hold.
I wish to be a blind
Beauty is enough inside
Capturing unseen earth-
The charm in flood and
Sorrow in clear sky.
Smelling rocks instead ladies
To find the source
of immortality;
The deep fog at midnight speaks
In afterlife diction.
Looks turn pale and maroon-
Conceiving pain troubles…
The colour-tube of eyes burst-
Images turn black and white.
What a pleasure to crawl now
I can smell rocks better.
Just A Last Peg For The Jobless
Ashes dropping over
a mug of vodka
speak of a micro-story-
minutes ago.
A boy sitting and sipping it,
chained by silence
indicates a sorrow
pricking hard.
The table has heard
Dramas of thick emotion
As two opposite sexes
Sat exchanging words,
Hours ago.
The desperate boy
Was left in despair
By a girl suffering
From insecurity.
Alone, the boy sits jobless
While the table has
nothing else than a last peg
to offer.
The waiter waits to see
The boy drinks the peg
Or the peg drowns the boy…
Those Soft Fingers
Just another uneventful day
Creeps in disguise
Of the deceptive dawn;
Enveloped within
Shades and light
To blur realty.
The day keeps ringing
Through the words
Of a directionless crowd
Set in Brownian motion.
Darkness entered and
I sat in my chair,
Lit the table lamp
And wondered
About the girl whose
Fingers locked with mine
While hanging half inclined
In the crowded bus.
The night in its
Daily job pushes
Me into the whirlwind
Of nasty thoughts
And makes me ponder
If I am correct.
Sleep doesn’t dare to
Crawl into the
Fire of lust.
The beer bottle topples over
And floods the table cloth.
I see my reflection
In alcohol.
My face falls over it
I enter into slumber.
I was addicted,
Not to lust but to love
Those soft fingers.
My Chained Faith
The far-flung whistle of the colliery
and of the Calcutta-mail
calls me every day after dinner.
The train’s shrill echo and
rhythmic melody of wheels
form a sublime image of
the girl out of my dreams,
waving and smiling;
screaming and crying;
standing and waiting
just for me amidst gasses,
trees and hedges that wave
in solitude and hope.
The curvature of the lopsided land
plays hide and seek along with
the clouds and moon blurring realism.
My belief is incurable and so is
the facade of pleasure that I show
while I follow compellingly,
the whistle of the colliery.
My faith lies in the train,
in the wilderness and
the vaporous figure of my love
while my whims are chained
with famine and society
that may identify me as a mad
once I leave my job and run
into the hazy backwoods.
Two Worlds
A blue lake captures my soul in its
unmeasured, unimaginable depths
where a new world better than lands
survive drinking immortality.
Howling wolves pierce melancholy
and the dropping leaves stuck with
fever of spring bows down
before the majestic stance
of endless sky and waters.
Echo of unknown sounds emerging
from the interstices of the woods
run wildly, circle around ears
like unquenched souls.
Striking against trunks topless trees
they become one with lingering serenity.
The bridge connecting them to my land
is left broken for years,
perhaps broken by the Gods
and none has dared to swim across
for both worlds gets bewildered
with the laws in either side of the bridge.
Sonnet Mondal has authored seven full length books of poetry published by renowned Indian publishers like Authorspress, New Delhi and Sparrow Publication, Kolkata. He was bestowed Poet Laureate from Bombadil Publishing, Sweden in 2009. His works have appeared in more than hundred literary publications includingThe Stremez, International Gallerie, Red Ochre Lit, The Metazen, World Poets Quarterly, The Journal of Poetry Society of India, The Single Hound, The Adroit Journal, Holler of Princeton Poetry Project andMidwest Literary Magazine to name a few. He was inducted in the prestigious Significant Achievements Plaque at the museum of Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur in 2011, nominated forPushcart Prize and was featured as one of the Famous Five of Bengali youths by India Today magazine in 2010. At present he is the managing editor of The Enchanting Verses Literary Review, Editor of Best Poems Encyclopedia, Editor of the University newsletter of BESU, Shibpur and the Sub Secretary General of Poetas Del Mundo.
Details of his works can be found at www.sonnetmondal.com
Photo courtesy of Marco Djermaghian
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