Three Poems by Kaushik Barua

Tulkarem Dreaming

One two four seven
lorries with soldiers
carrying rifles

if guns were parasols
they could float to heaven.

 

Private University

Irrigation pipes in coils,
seeds slumbering:
Hassan with his coffee
waits for spring.

Hassan recalls The Struggle:
Ten feet by twelve feet,
Two cell mates,
Seventeen jailers,
Three languages.

Nine years.
But he learnt English for free
which was nice.

 

Wall

A wall between nations
throws its straight shadow
unevenly on the ground.

A wall between people
is crowned with coiled wire
birds fly over.

 

 

 

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About the Author:

Kaushik Barua has written two novels and was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar (the Young Writer Award from India’s National Academy of Letters). His novel No Direction Rome, a dark comedy on the millennial generation, will be published by Permanent Press in the USA in November 2017.