I murmur in my wife’s ears,
“Taylor and Brown gave us Positive Illusions.
That was nineteen eighty-eight.
Deceive our hearts. Use it, dear. Keep us lucid.”

And still, the ghost casts
a peripatetic disk of light as if the sun has
caught some dome-shaped crystal
of the wristwatch belonging to one deceased.

Our daughter chases the light.
“Take her for a mosey.” Says my wife.

The street has emptied its truths to no end.
The crows settle for a dozen murders
on the railings of the pavements.
We walk, and still, the ghostlight strolls by our side.
“Tomorrow is better than the past.”
I tell our daughter. The light shines like slant laughter.

…

An author and a father, Kushal Poddar, edited a magazine – ‘Words Surfacing’, authored seven volumes including ‘The Circus Came To My Island’, ‘A Place For Your Ghost Animals’, ‘Eternity Restoration Project- Selected and New Poems’ and ‘Herding My Thoughts To The Slaughterhouse-A Prequel’. His works have been translated in ten languages.

Find and follow him at amazon.com/author/kushalpoddar_thepoet