The Lost Mango Tree

The mango tree which I reared
is lost today…..somewhere
in the jungle of my wishes.

I used to throw whole mangoes
in our backyard
to see them grow up into trees.

Not a single leaf sprouted
except from a half-eaten one.

After watering it…..in its infancy
I became engaged
wining and dining with my life.

After years — today
a mangrove in our backyard
shaded my memories
from the hard sun of forgetfulness. 

I wish…..I had left myself
to the charity of wilderness.

**

Strange Meetings

Sometimes we run into someone
just for once in our lives

and our bones refuse
to fit inside the skin

the same way.

Plans proceed as waves
and recede as doubts.

A fleeting joy
with gnawing pangs
of apprehension

the stretch between
experience and fear

seems like the time taken by a fish
to reveal and conceal itself

in front of a fish hook.

**

Locked

Sometimes
the iron in a lock
must be thinking
why was I moulded
into something as such!

A life that came
with boldness
got swept into
isolation — by the tongue
of a melancholic rust

hanging like a slave
to the will of the key
and fingers.

**

Journeying

by and by………….life would pass like this

flying……………….like a vagrant kite at night

earlier……………….i used to tour inside my mind

sometimes…………with my mind into others

then i thought…….my body should also tour

hence i tour………..with both of them now

when…………………my bones would start forsaking me

i would still tour   inside my mind

and count…………..my days of touring

looking at………….the curve of my shadow

**

All poems first appeared in Karmic Chanting Copper Coin, 2018.

Sonnet Mondal is an Indian poet, literary curator, editor, and author of Karmic Chanting (Copper Coin, 2018), Ink and Line (Dhauli Books, 2018) and five other books of poetry. He has read at literary festivals in Macedonia, Ireland, Turkey, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Ukraine and Slovakia. His writings have appeared in several publications across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. Mondal has been one of the authors of the Silk Routes project of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa from 2014 to 2016. One of the founding directors of the Chair Poetry Evenings International Festival, Mondal edits the Indian section of Lyrikline Poetry Archive (Haus für Poesie, Berlin) and serves as the editor in chief of Enchanting Verses Literary Review. He has been a guest editor for Poetry at Sangam, India and Words Without Borders, New York. His works have been translated into Hindi, Italian, Chinese, Turkish, Slovak, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Russian, Slovenian, Hungarian, and Arabic.

Sonnet Mondal’s books can be purchased through his website http://www.sonnetmondal.com/books.html