Gopal’s evocative poem for DifferentTruths.com masterfully blends surreal imagery with raw emotion, capturing the fleeting, fragile essence of human existence.
If one window is opened, another window somehow automatically starts to close.
Whose cleverness? Never known. Sitting face to face with you is like an incredible fantasy, preparing for a whirlwind of dust storms, the sound of footsteps still makes my heart tremble.
Books and notebooks scattered on the table, cigarette butts, teacups, breathing amid light and darkness. The candle goes out, and I think of water. A holy bath in the Ganges, the sky breaks with rain, pushing the rhyme of time.
Time falls like yellow-green leaves with fresh bloodstains, not a thread of cloth on the body; you can burn it to ashes now. The eyes are like washed-up stars slated to reach earth, and I will taste myself in my ashes.
summer evening
the subdued chirping
of a dying sparrow
Picture created by AI
Gopal Lahiri, a prolific bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer, and translator, has 32 published books, including eight solo/jointly edited volumes. His poetry and prose grace over 150 global journals and anthologies, with translations into 18 languages across 17 countries. Nominated for the 2021 Pushcart Prize and 2025 Best of the Net, he earned the 2020 Setu Excellence Award and 2024 First Jayanta Mahapatra National Award. His work features in the Penguin Book of Poems on Indian Cities.
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