New | Poetry | Six Poems of Protest | Sutputra Radheye

The Frugal Repast by Pablo Picasso

(1)

When a man

curves his palm

and stares at the sky

and a woman

folds her hand

and closes her eyes

in between them

they share an idea

of love

love that saffron hates

love that got Gandhi killed

love that Umar is being punished for

love that cures the pandemic 

of riots 

(2)

There is no caste 

in India

only cases of a community

pushed into manual scavenging

with no safety measures

of women from a community

getting raped and their bodies

being burnt without any investigation

only scholars of a community

not being taught in classroom

of students hanging themselves

in central universities

(3)

There are flowers dying.

I am sorry that I can’t water them.

I am sorry that I ain’t sunshine.

My hands were tied and my mouth sealed.

What a pity that my eyes were left open

To see how the bears molested the honeybees.

(4)

Kolkata has been an empty room

since the time I came here.

The yellow taxi have grown pale,

and the red no longer smells of blood

(5)

I am a male whore

that works for money

sitting on the ashes

of the books

that dumb philosophers

prescribed to find sanity
in insanity

(6)

Beauty dies

where your eyes

stops exploring

Or beauty lives

where your eyes

can’t reach.