Poetry

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By

Kushal Poddar

How Democracy Works

The cadres paint the party office

again. Their stairs forged from

the bamboo bones lean on the wall.

The cadres paint the office of the leader

again. The clouds do the other paint job.

Blue turns white. White becomes black.

By the evening rain comes. Cadres paint

as their shirts stick wet to their thick skin.

Paint! The leader’s changed his mind again.

The street’s spine coils the office.

It ends where it begins. The dogwood.

The banyans. The dolls some hung

from a branch as if piercing them will harm

the foes. Holy ribbons hold some secret ballots.

The cadres change the skin. Party office paints

them again, against the sky, now white, now blue,

now black, now floral with dogwoods, ribbons.

Dolls swing from the voodoo tree, host a party

to bleed a heart, a spleen, a little, so much,

and the leader changes his faith again.

Kushal Poddar

Kushal Poddar authored ‘The Circus Came To My Island’ (Spare Change Press, Ohio), “A Place For Your Ghost Animals” (Ripple Effect Publishing, Colorado Springs), “Understanding The Neighborhood” (BRP, Australia), “Scratches Within (Florida, USA)”, “Kleptomaniac’s Book of Unoriginal Poems(BRP, Australia)” and “Eternity Restoration Project, New and Selected Works“(Hawakal, India).