Protest poems by Sonnet Mondal

Guerrillas

Look
how they walk together: our heralds
as guerrillas scream for food in huts
with crumbled breasts
clinging onto the lips of baby skeletons

NO, there isn’t anything dark in it.

The stars are brighter than ever today.
Each one as intense and unwavering as the pole star
crowding beside the streets of our national gate.
God bless their firmness!

We are still wondering
seeing you two in our ‘national television,(still the only one in our village)
if we can ever see our reflection
in the polished skin of those escorting cars behind you.

Smiling in a stance which you might term Satanic
we are walking with earth above our head.
The vanity cars:
they will surely show us our faces,
once these roads are complete.

Seeing how we look then,
we will surely laugh
like guerrillas.

How smart are we!

We are becoming one to put up malls, mobile towers, wifi ...

Oh sorry!
Our future is a smart city.
Oh sorry!
Our future is a smart country.
Oh so sorry!
We are already so smart.

Can we please have the pleasure of seeing sparrows again?
The growing number of tigers
long to see them too.

Our smart phones are bored-
Selfies are constantly competing for watsapp DPs
Downloads are demanding more land
Browsers are discussing terms with antiviruses

Our smart phones-
They are opening their eyes often nowadays
to see something in to extinction
to capture
a panorama of a zoo tiger-cub looking at a wild sparrow.

A snarling inside bars-
can be of curiosity, warning or fear
but with assured protection

And a free life of hollow bones
flying from branch to branch
walking like a gentleman through grasses
but endangered by our smartness.

Ah sorry!
No worries.
Let the smart city and smart country grow!
Photoshop is there to create
a panorama of a zoo tiger-cub looking at a wild sparrow.

Dilemmas in front of Terrorism

She was standing with her baby.

One scream and the baby may die
from the hunting bullet of the terrorists
sniffing human flesh in the parking.

Her chauffeur stood still
unaware
waiting
behind the half opened car door.

Shall she signal the driver to come forward?

Dilemmas in her mind spoke
Yes, Let him die.
Let the infant see some more days
And
a mother shall live too
for her child.

The chauffeur came forward
Bullet sounds were heard
But no screams.

Far inside the house of a chauffeur
two babies fought over toy cars
with their mother
smiling beside.

About the poet:
Sonnet Mondal is an Indian poet and editor. Born and brought up in West Bengal, Sonnet currently resides in the city of Kolkata, India.
He is the founder of The Enchanting Verses Literary Review and has authored eight collections of poetry.
Sonnet’s poetry collections include Prismatic Celluloid (2013), Diorama of Three Diaries (2011), Twenty One Lines Fusion Sonnets of 21st Century (2010), Ink and Line (2014) among others.
Sonnet was featured as one of the Famous Five of Bengali youths by the India Today magazine in 2010 and in the Forbes List of Celebrated contemporary Indian authors in 2014.
Sonnet’s works have been included in the editions of The Sheepshead Review (University of Wisconsin, Green Bay), The Penguin Review (Youngstown State University), Two Thirds North (Stockholm University), Nth Position, Fox Chase Review, The Stremez (Supported by The Ministry of Culture, Macedonia), California State Poetry Quarterly (California State Poetry Society), The Thing Itself Journal (Our Lady of the Lake University, Texas) and Dark Matter Journal (University of Houston-Downtown) to name a few. His works have been translated into Hindi, Arabic, Italian, Macedonian, Turkish and other languages.