Poetry

Reuters photo

By

Pranab Ghosh

A Plea

There was a time…

There was camaraderie

There was laughter

There was bonding

Between man and man

There was a time

When they sat

Around their meals

Thanked their ‘god’

And broke their

Bread together…

There was a time

When they cried

And laughed,

Lend their shoulders

And held each others’ hand…

There was a time…

Their house is now

‘for sale’. Their broken

Unused car stands

In front of the

Locked gate of

Their crumbling hearts…

They are all gone.

The shells burst…

The noise shattered

The peace of distant

Villages too. But…

There was a time

When bullets did

Not pierce wind and hearts

In such frequent intervals.

There was a time

When shells did not

Murder peace and

Put an end

To life, love, living

Can we not get that time,

Our time back?

Pranab Ghosh

Pranab Ghosh is a journalist, poet, author and translator. He has three published books to his credit. Air and Age (co-author; published from Kolkata), Soul Searching and Other Poems (first solo book of poems, published from Toronto) and Bougainvillea And Other Stories, a book of short stories in English, translated from the Bengali original. His poems have been published in Tuck Magazine, Dissident Voice, Literature Studio Review, Scarlet Leaf Review, Leaves of Ink, Weasel Press, Harbinger Asylum, Spillwords, The Piker Press, Visual Verse, Hans India and Setu Magazine, among others. He is married and lives in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.