Shyamalkanti Das
The peacock's game
The peacock has taken me for a snake, and
The thought makes him rip my body into shreds with
Blows from his beak.
He is clawing through my belly,
Turning the innards out.
Instead of tears, colloidal mud is all
That emerges from between my eyelids.
The peacock has held my head tight against the ground;
With a sudden pull, has severed
My shrivelled appendix of a cock
And with my trivial profane heart
That resembles cockscomb flowers,
His periodic displays of wondrous sport continue !
While watching the peacock at his game
I turn into a mere shadow of what I'd been,
The prowess to raise a hood has long bygone !
Playhouse
Hiding in a corner I wished to witness coitus
You, my sworn enemy
Came from nowhere and turned my head around
Throwing every protest to the wind, you clawed and gnawed
My lidless eye off its socket.
My cuffs betray the blood which now gurgles forth
Even a thousand attempts won't yield to me
The spectacle of a flower in bloom anymore.
I was not at fault
I only wanted to gape at evens and odds
And at nature -- no holds barred
Wished to know where Man's so many thrills find final rest
Wished to know which are the exact beams that now
Light up the best things that Man finds pleasure in
It was you who did not let me know
In my learnings a huge, huge fissure prevailed
Something I will forever regret !
Translated by Bappaditya Roy Biswas
