Subhankar Das Calcutta, India

Magic of nobility

I detest police, lawyers’, doctors.
The street smart con man,
sluts on the dark side of the roads
and the regular hustlers
are a better human breed.
Whom you do not have to think
to trust or not to trust
as a friend.
You simply don’t trust them
and they also do not bother
to act noble and straight
like your lawyer friend,
who never thinks twice before
sweeping clean your wallet
and acting all the time to be legal and regal.

Subhankar Das owns an independent bookstore in Calcutta. His first book “Songs of the Damaged Brain” was published in 1987, and fourteen collections have made it into to world since. He is very much involved in Bangalaliterature.

Subhankar Das Calcutta, India

Flip-flops

I use to buy my flip-flops
from big brother Notu’s roadside shoe shop
in Kalighat just a few steps from my book store.
It is not that I do not buy it
anymore from there.
As these flip-flops are made out of old car tires
it is much harder and obstinate
than the usual branded flip-flops available.
Nothing happens to them generally only the strap
snaps off sometimes. In those old times
you could still borrow safety pins easily from girl friends
to save the situation. But now
these spaghetti top girls do not carry
those safety pins anymore.
Now you have to try the half known faces
midwives around you. That means
the myth of those days of flip-flops with their
snapped off straps are gone forever.
Now flip-flops do not go out of the house at all.
Just like me they grow their pot-belly
and become slowly old.
One after another the hairs become red
and then turns white like an old fool.
As you cannot color flip-flops
the mark of your foot becomes larger.
Then one day it lands up
in a trash can with a big hole.

Subhankar Das owns an independent bookstore in Calcutta. His first book “Songs of the Damaged Brain” was published in 1987, and fourteen collections have made it into to world since. He is very much involved in Bangalaliterature.

About Least Bittern Books