I can hear the antique
Whisper out its name
I can smell the antique
Wafting out its fame

Lying discarded, neglected
Sitting silently in a corner
Ruing its past glory
Completely lost, a loner

Yet the pride remains
Of a long glorious past
A time of bravery and valour
A period turned to dust

Holding the piece, I wonder
When my time shall come
When I shall lie unnoticed
Stranded, deserted, abandoned

The antique now speaks to me
In a voice loud and clear
Do not dwell in the past
Nor anticipate the future

Live your life here and now
Enjoying every minute
For who knows when
You shall become an antique

Subir Chakraborty / 8th Feb 2018

The power of the truth
Determines the power of the lie
One existing because of the other
Conjoined twins at birth

The power is heady
Seductive, sinewy, lithe
Winding its way up the spine
Till it settles firmly in the brain

Turning the equations upside down
With a heady mix of control, authority
Playing havoc with the tapestry
Converting symmetry to asymmetry

Can power be detached from the truth
Or from the lie
Can truth and lie exist
Without the ambition of ascendancy

Truth for the sake of truth
And the lie to exist
Only for revealing the truth
In its clinical clarity

So that equanimity and equipoise
Can continue unhindered
And the mind can traverse smoothly
On its path of reasoning and objectivity

Subir Chakraborty / 4th Feb 2018

The nod of the head
A few half spoken murmurs
And then the pause
Always the pause

For a pause can speak
Not merely the hiatus
Nor the unspoken interval
Between two spoken words

One can deal with a word
Fight, argue, agree, disagree
Vehement, passive
Scream, soothe; involved, indifferent

But a pause
Always a pause
A mystery, an enigma
Conveying a myriad meanings

Never superficial
Or repetitively boring
Each screaming for attention
Crying for its unique space

A pause
Always a pause
Pregnant with possibilities
Never without a cause

Subir Chakraborty / 1st Feb 2018

Enveloped by the crescendo
Of the piercing silence
I peel off the barriers one at a time
And allow my being to confront its own bitterness

What can it inform me, I’m curious to know
Of my own frailties, my failings
Trapped in the innermost recesses
Guarded zealously by the sentries of my mind

Protecting me from internal violence
Which can rip me apart
The realizations and the fears
The self confessions of weaknesses and unlawful desires

But the time approaches presently to dare it
In a now or never act
To free my soul from the bindings
And let it soar free, ever free

Subir Chakraborty / 29th Jan 2018