Coloured Ice: Poetry and Short Stories

By Sujoy Sen

This collection of poetry and short stories portray the dark and bright side of city life that sparkles like colored ice on sale in ice-cream counters. Each and every piece is sparkling, delectable, and tempting, with a swaying rhythm. A blues song in tempo weaving its unforgettable tunes through back alleys and speeding highways. Through rustling grass and sighing wind. Through the million soulful yearnings of the human mind that rises above all to conquer that elusive high ground.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Jul 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781482883886

Sujoy Sen

Sujoy Sen has the ability to bring together a unique cast of characters that talk and act in ways we often imagine ourselves to be. These characters also end up in situations which appeals to the readers’ sense of poetic beauty, the dark side, and even the funny side.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by Sujoy Sen.

ISBN:      Softcover    978-1-4828-8389-3

                eBook        978-1-4828-8388-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/india

Contents

Part 1

(Poetry)

ATM

Beginning

Saffron beat

Blue train

Coloured ice

Dark river

Empty

Garage band

Green land

Heaven opens its new branch on Funk Street

Lies

Prison

Roll

Spring

Struck by words

The blues, the man, the cigar

Words

The new wave

Clawed evening

Ferry man

Dangling words

Beggars

Blood song

Freddie Mercury

Leaf

Lick the limerick

Pink slip

Sealed envelope

Tin can

Two doors

Who employed her?

Soft board

Part 2

(Short stories)

The green book

Nobody’s news

Peter had a little lamb

Saucy lady

Sky

Slim woman and the last tiger

Subliminal advertising

The Book Store

Thought less

Trick or treat

Flicker

Giraffe

Junk

The flute teacher

Wings

Feelings

The hand of darkness/ See you in hell.

Restore

The revenge of the parrot

Ash Wednesday

The salt doll

Part 1

(Poetry)

– ATM –

The cash streamed out of the ATM

Bathed in blue liquid light

Liquid cash was never such a sight

Only beaten by the beaten man weeping in front of the machine

He had done his job punching each key and number with gusto

The pin numbers in place

His secret love code.

What went wrong was one less 100-rupee note

This calibrated machine couldn’t deliver by rote.

The slip in precision, the broken man, and the conditioned cold air

Flew by to different lands, and cash stands

It became big news proving errors in the automated bank

It threw hole in man’s true love of secret codes

It flung open a completely new strand

Of forgotten love of holding nimble hands.

– Beginning –

The golden girl stepped out into the sunlight

Cutting the sun in strips to make orange roads.

Every footstep a sun beam

Shafting out into the sweep of a wide open future.

The fields travelled with her

And songs of the wind in the grass.

Some where the road turns and she’s lost.

The orange road goes on to touch the sun.

And the sun beam never gets lost.

– Saffron beat –

The saffron swirl

whirling red flowers

floating through the air

in a merry twirl.

The two strings sing

with their merry zing

discover the rhythm

in a magic rhyme

as the wind beats your heart to measure time.

– Blue train –

Hitch yourself to the blue train

let the engine roll

rusty feelings in the rail yard

of bye bye baby blues

Go easy on the rail road

The cabin man sings for you

Swing it with the clackity clack

The wailing whistle won’t hold you back

Bye bye baby

Bye Bye.

Burn with the sun shine

That runs on the steel wheels

Rolling up the sleeves

And the next station sign hangs low

It’ll pass with the feelings

Oh yeah the swinging blue train knows.

– Coloured ice –

Turned the music

to blast the colours

and what I got instead

was a bloody red.

Smudged Sundays

lip stick Mondays

and party nights smashed

with fun days.

Who knows where there’s rattle

where there’s roll.

Fallen spring time

grounded flowers

crushed ice sprinkled with lover’s eyes

and orange bottles.

Lick the ground

if you can’t get the sound

and beg the ice man

to return for the next round.

Sky wrapped evenings

come carting along

clinked out feelings

and frozen melodies

mounted on a song.

- Dark river -

Dark river broods

take easy time

city spreads its dreams

with the rippling tide.

– Empty –

The page and empty lane

Winding around pretending to be a book.

The empty tear stains like desolate saucers standing out into the sun.

The lifeless hands that grip slipping sands

To check out bands that’s past radio wavelengths.

The dying signal that flips without a blip.

The closing horizon near you of forgotten familiar skies.

The bird falls on your lap wings sucked out by jet planes.

Even a single feather placed between pages could be a flight.

Even the wind blowing through hollow pipes could

Pass on as desolate music of the night.

- Garage band -

The rock star gyrated with a twist of his hips

He was playing to the gallery

For all the facebook clicks

Then came the danger of a fresh new page

Twitter had him dancing in a blinding rage

The music became louder as he belted out his songs

And he overturned social media and all that was wrong.

Now he sits hiding with his garage band

Churning out lyrics like the grains of a sand

Every signal coming out of him

Is at the mercy of his electronic whim

And in case you’ve lost him

He’ll be back

Carrying with him his digital sack

Swept in it would be facebook likes

And the face of his brand manager

Shaped like a mike.

- Green land -

Golden drops

embrace the golden land

where rolling greens