Kushal explores memory and absence in this evocative poem on DifferentTruths.com, capturing the ghostly presence of a jacket.
On the backseat, your jacket
pretends to be full of you and
a keeper of your sleep too.
Are you here? If I imagine so
perhaps you are. If I doubt -
this becomes a lone car, and we
have crossed the last paddy field
before speeding into a blur.
The jacket came from a thrift store,
bears the name of a university
none of us could ever go. Does it hold
more people, shape them, although
because of my ignorance, they remain
invisible? I keep talking about silence,
about your infatuation with it.
The jacket slides from the seat.
The noise turns my head while I drive.
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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