The trident lightning arrestor
looks more constant than before—
besieged by discomfort,
bygone joys and pain—a belief
flowing endlessly into the future.
The creepers cannot
offer love to it—no red or yellow flowers.
The tea-seller beside the closed factory
never noticed it since the trident
didn’t ever arrest or spear any lightning
especially when the radical flags
were offering a yearlong monsoon
to a sneaking venomous rust.
There is now a vacuum inside the gates,
patches of love and strife on the trident
and outside some tea for passers-by.
The Biscuit Factory
The biscuit factory
still bears a baked aroma
on its unwrapped metal.
The leftovers are soil now
but it failed to engulf its breath.
The blurred slogans on its walls
are old bruises—still longing to heal.
It feeds on time to shed its colour
for the bricks to appear—
the way a tree longs to shed its leaves
without our staring.
Grandpa’s Veranda
Grandpa used to sit on a protrusion
of the veranda in our old house.
He used to nod subtly
to acquaintances walking by—
ploughing time—looking from across the road.
I remember him from his last days,
mostly lying on the bed he had slept on
for more than six decades.
These days I often sit in the new open balcony
of our house. A few people wave at me.
A few smile and some just walk by.
I will be sitting here till they remain
just like Grandpa still sits in his veranda
in the eyes of those who have seen him there—
an unavoidable view of places we inhabit,
an inconsolable coffin much before we depart.
Author’s Bionote:
*Sonnet Mondal is
an award-winning Indian poet, editor, author and the director
of “Chair Poetry Evenings – Kolkata International Poetry Festival”. He is
the recipient of several awards including “Chandigarh
Sahitya Akademi Award of Honour”, “Gayatri Garmarsh Memorial Award” for
literary excellence, and “Godyo Podyo Probondho” award
among others. His ten books of poetry include “Clamour for a Handful of
Rice” (Copper Coin 2025), “An Afternoon in My Mind” (Copper Coin
2022), “Karmic Chanting” (Copper Coin 2018), “Lautaten Dopaheren” (Rajkamal
Prakashan 2024) and six other books of poetry. He has read as an
invited poet at literary festivals in over twenty- five countries
including USA, France, Colombia, North Macedonia, Ireland,
Morocco, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Germany, Italy,
Ukraine, Hungary, Madagascar, South Africa, and Slovakia. Mondal was one
of the authors of the Silk Routes project of the “International Writing
Program at the University of Iowa” from 2014 to 2016 and was
Guest Writer in Residence at the “Almaty Writing Residency”,
Kazakhstan in 2023 and 2025. Mondal edits the Indian section of “Lyrikline” and
serves as managing editor of “Verseville” and has served
as a guest editor for “Words Without Borders”, New
York, and “Poetry at Sangam”, India. His works have been
translated in over twenty languages.