The Soap by Kushal Poddar

A thin sliver of soap, translucent, glycerine, slashes my skin. I hold it before my eyes. It filters the toilet, washroom into a slow sunset scene. Blood and drawing structures- where have I seen it before? I drop to my knees as if memories is a thick mist puddled near the floor. My father died slipping on his soap. We bled a cloud so that the journey to the cremation pier be comfortable for us, the living. I washed the blood away  from my hands and threw away the shirt. The […]

https://latinosenglishedition.blog/2026/06/10/the-soap-by-kushal-poddar/

“Middle Class” by Kushal Poddar

Photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.comMiddle Class


You stare at their photograph,

and think not about their stilled

liplock not about their azure

vacation but how superior

their camera is.


Their kiss

burns on that nighttime beach;

sparks from the bonfire lose

their ways in the black air, salubrious -

somehow you know. You swipe

to the next frame where, because

of the angle of the device they

look gigantic and yet miniscule

underneath the open sky.

You envy their good fortune

that can buy them that camera.


This room engulfs you. Smaller

and smaller you shrink sipping

the tea until your body finds

a crevice between two silky pillows.

Copyright © 2026 Kushal Poddar
All Rights Reserved

The author of ‘Postmarked Quarantine’ and ‘How To Burn Memories Using a Pocket Torch’ has nine books to his credit. Kushal Poddar is a journalist, father, and the editor of ‘Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into 12 languages and published across the globe. Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe

Submit to MasticadoresUSA and subscribe for more great reads!

https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2024/10/31/masticadoresusa-submission-guidelines-october-30-2024/

#KushalPoddar #MasticadoresUSA #poem #poetry #TreasuredContributor

The Blind Stretch of Land by Kushal Poddar

The movements of the clouds and the sudden bursts of the Sun punctuate this minefield morning. I wave to your mother moving her wheelchair down the ramp. Walking is a nostalgia. She often says. Your father went to the war. War came to your mother. You often say. I deliberate on whether I should tell your mother that a barn owl sits above her head under your balcony. The clouds move. One moment it is blind; in the next it regains its vision.

https://latinosenglishedition.blog/2026/05/25/the-blind-stretch-of-land-by-kushal-poddar/

The Hungry Hands by Kushal Poddar

The crow and the boy drinking from your garden hose turn together toward you. You shoo them away. Summer leans on the line lawn. Your perfect walls  look like the bleached beach where the first of the slaves landed. The murmur  still sprinkles all over the grass. From the wet dirt wake up  some plants that bloom  in the shapes of hungry hands  and open palms.

https://latinosenglishedition.blog/2026/05/21/the-hungry-hands-by-kushal-poddar/

“Brown” by Kushal Poddar

Photo by Antoni Shkraba Studio on Pexels.comBrown

The hand that holds the glass

adds more brown

to the colour of the liquor.


Night jazzes out through

the slightly drunken doors

with the last one lone.

The doors' unhinged conversation

squeaks behind.


The water is blessed. The air

is embouchure.

Night's long kisses extort whistling

songs from the morning's lips.


In the fast cab I try to find your fingers.

Copyright © 2026 Kushal Poddar
All Rights Reserved

The author of ‘Postmarked Quarantine’ and ‘How To Burn Memories Using a Pocket Torch’ has nine books to his credit. Kushal Poddar is a journalist, father, and the editor of ‘Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into 12 languages and published worldwide. Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe

Submit to MasticadoresUSA and subscribe for more great reads!

https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2024/10/31/masticadoresusa-submission-guidelines-october-30-2024/

#KushalPoddar #MasticadoresUSA #poem #poetry #TreasuredContributor

“Overbridge” by Kushal Poddar

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.comOverbridge

The paler parts of the steps,

sporadic and footprints-shaped,

reach for the overbridge where

addicts sleep and lovers kiss.


They have screwed up strong nets

so that no one hurls himself down

after Sen. I miss him too, my friend,

but unlike you I cannot visit the spot

and gaze at the roofs of very slow cars.

Copyright © 2026 Kushal Poddar
All Rights Reserved

The author of ‘Postmarked Quarantine’ and ‘How To Burn Memories Using a Pocket Torch’ has nine books to his credit. Kushal Poddar is a journalist, father, and the editor of ‘Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into 12 languages and published worldwide. Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe

Submit to MasticadoresUSA and subscribe for more great reads!

https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2024/10/31/masticadoresusa-submission-guidelines-october-30-2024/

#KushalPoddar #MasticadoresUSA #poem #poetry #TreasuredContributor

The Annual Sale by Kushal Poddar

The books with broken spines  our library sells in an annual event  never fail to bring her, and that's  the one time we see her, ever more brittle,  paler, onion skinned, more silent  with a trace of a smile fixated on her face.  This year we shall miss her. We whisper.  The other day one of us read  the obituary. The news spread. This is a Spring event, and it has arrived.  Its fingers pry open the colour cores  of the trees.  It brought a sense of loss,  and we […]

https://latinosenglishedition.blog/2026/04/29/the-annual-sale-by-kushal-poddar/

Harbour  by kushal Poddar

We parted in front of the gate.  The male security guard talks  to his female counterpart  on the other side about the riverside  he took his family to and how  his daughter spoiled the day with  her swinging mood.  You smile at me while  the female guard's hands sail  through your stream. We look at estuary  alight, abuzz, through the foggy glass with the mall's name engraved in lush gold. 

https://latinosenglishedition.blog/2026/04/24/harbour-by-kushal-poddar/

“The White Ball” by Kushal Poddar

Photo by Connor McManus on Pexels.com
One missed neighborhood ball

transforms my grandmother's mirror

into a faux spider's fake artwork.


I see the sun too caught in

the queues of the dewdrops. Not real,

but close enough. On the nights

I perceive the lines of time

explode from the reflection of my head

I curse that boy whose arm is strong

but the aim is bad.

Copyright © 2026 Kushal Poddar
All Rights Reserved

The author of ‘Postmarked Quarantine’ and ‘How To Burn Memories Using a Pocket Torch’ has nine books to his credit. Kushal Poddar is a journalist, father, and the editor of ‘Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into 12 languages and published worldwide. Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe

Submit to MasticadoresUSA and subscribe for more great reads!

https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2024/10/31/masticadoresusa-submission-guidelines-october-30-2024/

#KushalPoddar #MasticadoresUSA #poem #poetry #TreasuredContributor

The Antiseptic Cage by Kushal Poddar

I tell him to sit on the wooden bench, mimic a still-life while I seek the doctor who saw him last time. He murmurs,  "Nothing heals, remains, except perhaps a few skulls in the wrong places and the emptiness stuck in them." I shake my head and head toward the pale blue plywood and mica front desk. A few reporters still ask around about mishap in this hospital last week. The dusty road stands outside with God's name on its tongue and an application for alms. The woman wearing […]

https://latinosenglishedition.blog/2026/04/17/the-antiseptic-cage-by-kushal-poddar/