Subhankar Das

Sounds of happiness

 

I switch my phone off

And turn on the other side

And keep listening

To the sounds of happiness

On the rooftop

As if trying to believe for a while

That everything is all right

When you walk in

Wearing only your smell

Underneath that raincoat

And you’re sprouting nipples

Loves me more than you do

Which the raincoat knows better

Than the rain outside

 

 

 

on the edge

 

I feel so lucky to have a friend like you who never thinks twice before badmouthing. i go into a semi crouch of a boxer then relax taking a deep breath then go back to my beer or a book or a piece of blank paper or a mirror and stand stark naked.

 

 

After the story there remains another

 

I was in the Burning Ghats

this morning

and found that

you can still burn happily

in the funeral pyre real cheap.

A story of life still ends

in the price of a regular novel.

 

All these time my friend was lying down

in silence

enjoying this hilarious play

which was unfolding slowly.

 

One of his sons took a lot of pain

to be present in the last rites.

The other one got stuck in office work

or might have gone marketing with his wife.

Which I forgot to ask

 

The priest was helping him to

light up the jute stalks held in a bundle

No … no…you have to complete another round

rounds around the body in a circle is not complete yet.

After much irritation and impatience

and after completion of the last round

the moment he brought those

stalks in flame near the dead man’s face

to touch it 3 times as per the guidance of the priest

I saw a sudden tremor

in the dead man’s body.

The lips of my dead friend

almost danced and dashed

towards the flaming stalks.

 

It has been so long I was waiting

for this warmth in my body.

 

It must be another trick of my fucking blind eye

I thought

It has almost made a regular mad practice now

to see the bizarre.

 

 

 There must be a rainbow somewhere

 

It was a sunlit four o clock afternoon

and it started raining.

We have a saying in this part of the world

when it rains like this

it is time for the dog and the fox

to marry.

Before I could tell her that

she came near the window and said

there must be a rainbow up there somewhere.

But we failed to find it

from my lone downtown window.

So I came back to my coffee machine

to check if there is still some coffee left.

Wondering all the time about that marriage

of the dog and the fox.

 

Afternoon sex was good.

Now she has to go back home

to her family again.

And it’s getting late because

of this beautiful rain outside.