“Deep Night Trauma” and Other Poems by S. Saha

Sandip Saha from India won one award and once finalist in poetry contests in USA. He has published one full length collection of poems and one poetry chapbook, Toast for Women (Oxford, UK, 2021) and is published 75 poems in 30 journals in five countries including India, USA, UK.

Artwork by Edward Michael Supranowicz

---

Deep Night Trauma

We lived in a village
my father used to shuttle
between home and workplace
riding a bicycle daily.
Some days he returned
very late at midnight
no streetlight, fireflies
only provided light
in dark moonless night
brick rubble road
stars were twinkling
in the pollution free sky
no other human around.

Soon at a distance a lantern
was seen by him moving ahead
maintaining a constant distance
though my dad was fast
as he was in a hurry
to reach home covering delay.
He was surprised when he
could not reach the light
no person was visible!

Suddenly the light vanished
but a hissing sound alerted him
oh God! He ran over a king cobra
he took both of his legs up
on the front wheel of the cycle
so that the king cannot reach
to bite on the legs, God forbid.
He was shaken in the two incidents
fortunately came back home unhurt.

Religions Have Lost Their Relevance

Going back to the time when the first human was born
on the earth I find advent of science took place that day.
From then every moment they lived with the help of it
conquered the world eventually defeating all else.

Religions were nowhere till a few thousand years ago;
fear is the mother of religions starting from worshipping
snake, tiger and all adversaries they encountered so that
they are not killed by the stronger forces on earth.

Gradually they defeated all predators by using science
all so called gods and goddesses disappeared, even today
to vanquish virus that has taken the whole world by surprise
it is only science that is working while religions are sleeping.

There are some fools and fanatics who feel always insecure,
go after forced conversion from other religions to their own
even though their population is higher than that of other faiths
and they never can unite together to make a big strong nation.

It is not necessary to be religious but needs to be reasonable
to have a happy life. We are bewildered by the types of sexes,
people of colors and white people complications in the society
let us be only spiritual and abandon all religions to be reasonable.

Power Lies With The Dishonest Fools

Winning election does not mean you are good
this is truer in democratic system of poll
the person gets elected is chosen by those who
like him or her best to fulfill their intensions.

These purposes are not honest most of them
how to make a syndicate and do businesses
where only particular set of people get orders
to supply construction materials, coal mining ….

In government schemes the benefits do not reach
to the people for whom these are made of
either the money is swallowed by middlemen
or the officials take bribe in exchange of benefits.

It is easy to get chosen as the government in power
when the voters are callous in attitude and dishonest,
in democracy the power lies with the people
pandemic has shown how useless these people are!

When millions of people die due to the horrific disease
these fools neither use masks nor keep safe distances
proliferating infection like wildfire, what a tragedy
power lies with these fools to choose government!!

Knowledge is Omnipresent

A baby, just after birth, cries.
Why? Definitely he has knowledge-
either of hunger or of discomfort etc.
Though he is yet to be taught anything
he already knows and manifests it.
This is the great wonder of knowledge-
all-pervading and omnipresent.
It does not exist as a discrete unit externally.
All knowledge is already present in every human being
outside agencies only stimulate it.
A teacher can never make the student learn
if the pupil does not wake up himself.
At dark night, at a solitary place
a tree trunk appears to be a ghost
to a frightened man.
So knowledge is the resultant of something
which excites and the reaction of the person.
Depending upon the level
the understanding of a person varies
since the reaction part is not the same for all.
That is how, when general public sees a culprit
a saint sees in him the Lord himself.
So, he can forgive the sinner.
After full enlightenment,
knowledge is identical to all.

We Talk About Repair

An elephant herd is migrating
in search of food for coming days
on the way a baby is born
mother elephant takes care of it
all of a sudden, a lion pack attacks
the baby gets a wound in its leg
mother tries hard to make it stand
but it cannot; the rest of the elephants
become anxious lest they die starving
the mother has no choice but abandon
its own baby, what a tragedy!

Whether animals or humans
story is the same as from time to time
tragedies go on coming as the nature
follow its laws not made for our good.
We are born from mothers’ womb only
but death can happen in myriad ways.
Pandemic is only one of them
newer dying gallows are yet to come.

What repair can we do after this agony?
Nothing! Those who have full pocket
rebuild after every destruction. Material
is replaceable but it cannot be used as hinge
to join them to their loved ones they lost.
After rebuilding the fallen houses that
cyclone devastates they can only
go on living rest of their lives admitting
that everyone is only pawns in the hands of God.