Colporteur
He abandons his car where
it exhausts all its motion.
First of his disciple, a goat,
takes a mouthful of handbills.
Hours later he can hear all
the literature rumbling.
He converts a fence into
a blur. A cloud into
a roof ornament. Balls some
words, sows them along a wall.
On a rock, sunny side up,
he sits, pats the place beside,
says, sit, son. The plants will
take their sweet time to grow up.
Born in a warm corner of India, a lone child and brought up with his shadow mates, Kushal Poddar (1977- ) began writing verses at the age of six. He adopted his second tongue as the language to dream on. Widely published in several countries, prestigious anthologies included Men In The Company of Women, Penn International MK etc and featured in various radio programs in Canada and USA and collaborated with photographers for an exhibition at Venice and with performers for several audio publications .
He is presently living at Kolkata and writing poetry, fictions and scripts for short films when not engaged in his day job as a counsel/ lawyer in the High Court At Calcutta. The forthcoming books are Kafka Dreamed Of Paprika and A Place For Your Ghost Animals.