Some painful moments burrow into your being
Creating parcels of memories
Sitting pretty, sitting troubled, entrenched
In the deep recesses of your mind

Erupting with volcanic intensity
At times when least expected
Sometimes entrapped in company
At others, enveloped in loneliness

Each parcel unleashes its own tune
Draped in melancholy
Screaming with silence
Drowning in tears

You may choose to revive the memory
And release the emotions imprisoned within
Or dismiss it away
Playfully, unmindfully, nonchalantly

If you decide to hold on
Clinging on to shreds emanating from a cast
The true present may forever evade you
Keeping you frozen in the past

Subir Chakraborty / 31st Aug 2018

What shall I claim tomorrow
As my very own
What shall I lay to waste
And ready to disown

Old furniture, collections, books
Shall lie unmarked
Old relationships once treasured
Shall lie untouched

What I shall carry with me
Only the spring in my gait
Willing to give my all
And put to test my fate

A time might come after decades
When the past would have happened
And the future would look very short
Perhaps a trifle uncertain

When memories may come calling
Knocking on my door
Old artefacts, relationships, trifles
And very much more

Will I be able to look squarely
With my head held high
At all those asking me questions
And those I have denied

Shall I be able to justify to myself
All my past decisions
Without a tinge of regret
And without any compunction

Subir Chakraborty / 26th Nov 2018

I dream in the language of dreams
Where desire and my unconscious
Coalesce in an unholy alliance
Nudging me to a state of sweet surreality

And yet this unreality has a meaning
A connection, however slender
To my own daily existence
To my own fears and exuberance

The mind speaks a language
Of its own choice and preference
Unchained from its moorings
Frolicking around in gay abandon

Drawing in bits and pieces
From suppressed traumas and unspoken desires
Drowned from my conscious world
Under sheaves of neuronal cobwebs

I try to make sense of it when I wake up
Trying to distill order out of disorder
Reason out of unreason
Logic and monotony out of uncharted chaos

Subir Chakraborty
5th Feb 2012

Life as we have known so far
Is about to change
For when the storm subsides
We would all be tamed

All our money and ego
Reduced to a mere bauble
For the stupid virus did not differentiate
Between the affluent and the rubble

It also did not differentiate
Between the weak and the magnate
Such an ill bred and an illiterate virus
Without any manners or etiquette

It has given us all
Serious food for thought
An urgent course correction
Lest the future comes to nought

This is the real essence
Of a once in a life time storm
For at the end of it all
Ushers in a very new morn

Subir Chakraborty
7th June 2020

There are times when unreason rears its head
To throttle the voice of reason
Its opponent, its foe
Its ultimate adversary

It casts a magical spell initially
To lure even the well reasoned minds
And for the unconvinced who dare to question
It doles out the gift of treason

These are the times
When leadership appears rudderless
When you seize the moment, almost unknowingly
To shake the earth from its roots

You have not planned for it
And yet you are there at the front
For the sake of that one intangible
An idea you hold so dear

Your voice may be drowned out
Amidst the propagandist loudspeakers
Spewing out shots of venom
In leviathan doses

You may be caned, tortured, jailed
And yet, the pain unleashed on you
Becomes the very source of your sustenance
Your courage, your eternal strength

Your win or loss is not that important
Not anymore, not even your life or death
As the vision of that one idea subsumes your being
Your very existence

Your show of raw defiance
Unleashes limitless power
To convert many such unknown voices
Into an unstoppable torrent of reason

Subir Chakraborty
20th Jan 2020

A moment passes
Or gets buried, in the sands of time
Overladen with bitter sweet memories
Overburdened with expectations of mine

It slips through my fingers
Sliding away of its own free will
Totally unmindful of what I desire
Totally uncaring to the hilt

Where does it go, this moment
Which makes for bits and pieces of time
For which I toil and sweat endlessly
And trudge while the clock chimes

Wish I could access my moments
Secretly, silently, at my leisure
Wish I could store them in my chest
And cherish my hidden treasure

Alas! That is not be
For they have dispersed far and wide
Flown away into the ether
Without an address or a guide

Subir Chakraborty
28th May 2020

A few sit in their drawing rooms
Sweetly ensconced with their loved ones
A rug casually thrown at their feet
Creating a perfect storm in a tea cup

While the imperfect storm rages outside
Uprooting trees, mangling stray dogs, cats
Along with many hapless humans
The not so sheltered, the not so blessed

The internet is down, the TV silent
Causing some minor irritation
A kind of ‘why did it have to happen’
Of all days today, of all times now

The other humans, the ones not so fortunate
Sit huddled in small groups
Beneath a ledge or in a government shelter
Waiting, praying, waiting again

Thinking with their minds blank
Where the next meal will come from
Where to find the money, materials
To rebuild their hovel, the place they once called home

Meanwhile, the storm continues unabated
Over that warm cuppa
About music, about films, about fashion
About heroes, heroines, villains

While the other half try to lean on strands of hope
For that is all that they have got
And an invisible god somewhere up there
Who may just condescend to answer their prayers

Subir Chakraborty
20th May 2020

The deluge of emotions weighing heavy
Sow seeds of doubt in my mind
Do I consider you a friend, a villain
A lover, an ex-lover, anything at all?

The frieze of feelings
Entrapped within the two cornices of my mind
Create a strange medley
Of forward and retreating steps

Something tells me to give it a try
Once more
Just to see, whether it can work out
Perhaps for the last time

Something also tells me
That this will not be the last time
I shall be at your doorstep
With the same dilemma drowning my chest

So I keep on at it in my mind
Forward, backward, this way, that way
Maybe some other way
Perhaps some other day

Subir Chakraborty / 7th Oct 2018

Do you really fall in love with a person
Or with the script that you write about him
Hidden from public view
Stored securely on a whim

Unknown to him
He is weighed, measured, timed
Examined against your template
Playing the narrative in your mind

And when he goes astray
You may forgive him for minor errors
Or in case of a serious anti-narrative
Crucify him forever

Is this really love the way it is supposed to be
Or is it the devil of your narcissistic syndrome
Force fitting a rounded individual
Into a delusional square hole

Subir Chakraborty / 15th June 2018

How was I, you asked
What should I reply
How am I, thought I
The bare truth or the lie

The tears
That are bursting my chest
Turn into streams of laughter
At your behest

I am good, I say
Moving on, on a high
Enjoying my loneliness
And a blissful life

And the truth
I am too scared to say
For I am still trying to make my way
From the ashes lying in disarray

Subir Chakraborty / 10th April 2018