Kushal on DifferentTruths.com captures war’s haunting legacy: a father’s love repurposed amid bombings, toy guns, and unrecognisable returns.
She receives her father's love,
all of it now, repurposed.
The bombing metamorphoses
into partial deafness, although
the children won't let go
their hold on those toy guns.
Until the next blitz, they wait
for their mother to come back alive.
After the city shakes again,
they wait for her to return dead.
She does, albeit as often with
the dead, altered, in a shape
they cannot recognise her.
They use a jar for the zephyr,
a vase for the dry flowers.
Picture design by Anumita Roy
Kushal Poddar, the author of ‘A White Cane for the Blind Lane’ and ‘How to Burn Memories Using a Pocket Torch’, has ten books to his credit. He is a journalist, father of a four-year-old, illustrator, and editor. His works have been translated into twelve languages and published across the globe.
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