I creep out through the swinging door of my billet,
shed ninety eight legs on my way back to home,
and my child, the child, welcomes me, the biped,
spent, blasé, building a smile, simpering a wane anger.
“What’s this smell on your clothes?” the child asks.
I say not – gutter – chronicle him the emprise of a lame
tin soldier in a paper boat sailing down the guts of the end.
Kushal Poddar
Illustration Nick Victor
Authored ‘The Circus Came To My Island’, ‘A Place For Your Ghost Animals, Understanding The Neighborhood’, ‘Scratches Within’, ‘Kleptomaniac’s Book of Unoriginal Poems’, ‘Eternity Restoration Project- Selected and New Poems’ and now ‘Herding My Thoughts To The Slaughterhouse-A Prequel’ (Alien Buddha Press)
Author Page – amazon.com/author/kushalpoddar_thepoet
Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe