Poems by Angshuman Kar

Highway 
​
After 6 p.m.
they look like a herd of tuskers
ready to trample
every obstacle— 
a man or a Maruti.
But after midnight, when
they stand in rows,
heads lowered,
you understand
that the saddest animal on earth
is a truck.
 
 
Semblance
 
“Mohini Ladies’ Beauty Parlour” is six months old,
“Sajgoj” a bit older. The mud-and-wattle cinema hall
has been closed for long. The number of buses
has increased manifold. Their roar makes us believe
that a few lions are still alive on earth. But as dusk falls,
the scream of the fox is heard no more. There are no
foxes in this neighbourhood now. Yet, some say they’ve
spotted them. Their eyes glitter in the eyes of some humans.
 
 

Angshuman Kar, a Bengali poet and novelist, is Professor of English at the University of Burdwan, West Bengal. He was also the Secretary of Sahitya Akademi, Eastern Region. Kar has thirty-two collections of poems, nine novels and two memoirs to his credit. He has also received eight prestigious awards, including the Krittibas Award, Paschim Banga Bangla Akademi Puroskar and Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Puroskar. He has read poems in different countries like USA, Germany, Scotland and Bangladesh. Wound Is the Shelter is a collection of his poems in English translation.
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