ILA Magazine
Where Culture Meets Creativity
POEMS OF VANDANA KUMAR
"THE SATURDAY NIGHT SHOW"
The Saturday night show
Is like the moon outside my
balcony
A quarter full
There is a lot that remains
to fill up
Recession in the 1930s
People flocked to the movies
The bourgeois today
have their loyalties
Netflix reruns
And stock market index
Too much space between the
audiences
Empty rows between people
Watching the same dream
That same anti-hero
I had paid for a ticket
Hoping for the scent of a woman
To my left
I was on the lookout
For people maneuvering
Stumbling
Finding their seat
After an entry
Well near intermission
I had dreamt of an exit
With hundreds
leaving in rows and columns
One eye on the end credits
There is that hollow inside
The usher no longer flashes his torch
With that air of self-importance
The times
Teach us well
We learnt to navigate
Find our little spaces
In pitch dark
© Vandana Kumar
"THE NIGHT IS A LOVE SONG"
There is a big boat on the river
tonight
And it's still.
This isn't the one
Where rations were stocked
Where men in war torn district hid.
It's got the moon falling on it.
Let's sit at the stern
Or at the bow
We can take stock later
Count harvests missed
I could make a list
Of all the things that kept us away
But lists do little
Adding to the weight
Inside shirt and skirt pockets
Lists put pressure on us
To recall where we kept them
Let us instead, forget.
The fog has lifted its veil
The night wraps itself in a love
song
As light
As a rayon shrug
The one I wrap carelessly around
me
Signaling the end of winter
Time is slipping by
Take your dead grandfather's
fishing net
ensnare it.
© Vandana Kumar