Four Poems by Srijani Dutta

1

The forms of kindness

To seek solace,

The pedestrians sit under the shade of the tree

Whether it is summer or monsoon,

It does not matter

As all that matters

Is the attitude of the trees

Whom we cut down

In the name of deforestation

And modernity.

The memory of schooldays

Based on sharing pencils and tiffin

At lunch time

Shows us

The affinity between Maths and life,

How the complementary angles

Become the metaphor

Of selfishness and kindness.

Kindness –

Layers upon layers

Like onions-

It builds its structure

Inside the soul

Of children

Who stand in front of the mirror

And start

Seeing the other

As one with them.

Empathy arises

When they put their legs

Into the shoes

Not belonging

To them.

Kindness-

It is a mellowed down melody

That can only be reverberated

To ears

If we are eager to receive

Its symphony.

2

Interview

Words

Silence

Blank state

Confusion

Looking at the eyes

Avoiding eyes

Smile

Shyness

Swallowing words

Failure?

Beginning of something

End of something

Seriously failure?

Timing slots

Queue of candidates

Online/offline meetings

Meeting on the campus

Giving introduction

Elaborating skills

Drowsy eyes seem to be more alive

Than Wordsworth’s daffodils.

Biting nails

Dangling feet

Few nails only remain

To give a last mark on the coffin.

Curtain falls down

And the interviewer smirks

And leaves the interviewee

With a question-

Am I hired at all?

3

Am I using irony?

Nobody means no-one.

Nobody is a soul;

Nobody shrieks nothing

Nobody has an echo;

Nobody runs

Nobody walks in no man’s land.

No one hustles

No one sleeps

No one sings the songs in the nunneries.

No one smirks

No one paddles

Through the holes of mist,

None collects smog

None paints the sky

None opens up the mouth

But all sheds off the skins

Of their eyes-

To eye the dawn,

A new dawn.

Who is nobody?

You?

The people?

Me?

Am I using nothing

But-

Irony?

4

The Names

I am a name

Among the names.

Am I?

So many names around me

Trying to make a name

Name of themselves?

Name for themselves?

Name of oneself?

Making name for what reason?

To show I am supreme than the black hole?

To show that my name is the last name?

How long will this exhibition sustain?

An exhibition is a place of names

Where a nameless tries to find its name,

Miraculously, it finds.

But-

Alas!

A supreme one cannot.

Why?

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