Poems by Nileen Putatunda

Freshly Painted

Every monsoon, plants and flowers 

Receive an extra coat of colour 

Making them come alive even more. 

(with gratitude to Sukla Basu Ray; Uma Dasgupta; Partha Choudhury; Sugeeta Roy Choudhury) 

Masticate 

The upper jaw of the alligator of passion is indulgence, 

The lower one is guilt; 

Between the two, my mind is masticated. 

 30th June, 2021, Kolkata 

 Priya 

 I am remembering that sweet, innocent game of carrom 

That you and I played in our first few days of college; 

You nourished your innocence into immaculateness 

Being a cloistered nun for many years now; 

Today, on your forty-second birthday, 

Your beloved Lord Jesus will specially bless you, 

And I ask you, the greatest Stephanian, 

That I know or have heard of, 

To stoop from your towering spiritual stature 

And bless this poor brother 

Who sends pronaams aplenty and weak prayers. 

(with gratitude to Nitish Verghese, Sherry Roy; Francis X. Clooney, SJ; Kalyanjit Roy Choudhury) 

1st July, 2021, Kolkata