The Gorko Gazette

Daily Humor

thegorkogazette

10.11.2025 7:00 AM

The Light Darkness and 2 more by Kushal Poddar

The Light Darkness

A dark and silent rectangle
appears in our tenement.
We fought a while ago, and both lost.
It eats away every square inches
of our home. Rain begins, and its drops
materialize under the roof, drop
from the ceilings, into the life, lives.
We move the bucket around and give up,
sit on a sofa with our legs tucked.
We hallucinate rowing across
a neon black, luminous but devouring.
Its ripples carry the reflection
of the strong wind one cannot see.
My hand reaches for yours, and
yours for mine; what we seek isn’t discerning.

The Conception

A swirling torn paper
carries the word ‘Heartbreak’
to the wind.

‘Look at the clouds.’
Someone says.

The way every conception
constellates the components
of some miracle
the clouds gather and hide
one foetus of lightning
in their collective womb.

Soon the world will see it.
It will shift the tide of the events
even if by a fermi.

One flash message alerts you
via your device,
albeit as usual it comes too late.
You chase the heartbroken paper
through the lanes.

Bibliosmia

In an old bookstore with a sneeze
I cross the threshold of forty.
Bibliosmia slips into the long list
of the allergens I should avoid,
albeit my fingers stay inside the book,
Steinbeck’s. I near the window,
open, of the faded unairconditioned shop
and begin to inhale inside and outside
at once, the way a child sniffs his mother’s
breasts and shifts a little to breathe in
the fresh air. Autumn must be on the steps.
I try to remember what part of the year
I was born in, and I feel a success and failure
in suppressing the fact of my birth.
I sneeze again. The preloved book
releases a photo and before I can catch
a glimpse of it the rectangle of past
loses itself into the street below. Everything
is equal in oblivion. Everyone. I keep the old book in me.

About the artist

The author of ‘Postmarked Quarantine’ has eight books to his credit. He is a journalist, father, and the editor of ‘Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into twelve languages, published across the globe.

Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe