Yesterday’s Rain: Six Poems by Sakkho Goon
Photo: Karan Madhok
Poetry: ‘I placed my parents on a bench / And refused to let the sunset / Dawn upon their lives.’
1. Grief.
In my childhood, grandmother
Used to unclench my fist and secretly place a 10-rupee note.
She used to spend her afternoons on a charpai
Scolding my mom for not decorating the paan.
On her deathbed, I saw my mom for the first time
Untethered.
Serving lemonade to the young boys
Who lighted the funeral pyre.
*
2. Desire.
When daily provisions were exhausted, my mom sent me to the mudir dokan.
Dimly lit, I squinted my eyes for the sack of flour
And a piece of goja
Which the shopkeeper placed it on my hands.
My phone rings, and the delivery guy’s voice
Informs me of my order: a sack of flour
Which costs 100 rupees.
*
3. Sacrifice.
During our road trip to Delhi, my baba
used to place my head on his lap
He refused to let me sit alone.
In front of the Qutb Minar, he placed me on his shoulders
And refused to let me stand down.
At Paris,
I placed my parents on a bench
And refused to let the sunset
Dawn upon their lives.
*
4. Howrah Station.
I saw two young girls walk past a
Blind beggar; giggling,
While the speakers at the station
Informed of the Howrah-Belghoria at 2.
I dropped a 100-rupee note in his paan-stained bowl
And walked over to my berth.
When the train commenced, I saw
That same beggar; his head lay buried
In the palms of a child.
*
5. Affection.
Tell me,
Why my father laughed and danced
While his mother lay motionless
In front of his friends and families?
Tell me,
Why my mother was busy putting
Kajol and powder on her face
While her mother lay
On the couch.
Was it because it rained a little
More than yesterday
Or was it too sunny for grief
To overcompensate?
*
6. Migration.
In the Monsoons
Mednipur would be flooded with leeches and tiny snails
Which grasped the attention of the newborn
While it shrieked
In the affectations of the parous.
In Portugal,
The woman flaunted her navel,
With a snail
Attached to a silver fork
While her children lie asleep.
***
Sakkho Goon is currently a student of English Literature at St. Xavier's University. He writes in English and Bengali. He lives in Kolkata, West Bengal with his parents and an older brother.
