The Recipe of a Poem

by Shaswata Gangopadhyay

First: remove the husks of words then put them in a ceramic pot
Let them wet in tears for around ten minutes
then, when they maize in salt, take the shapes of granules
fire up the oven and fry them in cooking oil
 
After: cut the vein of your right forefinger,
spill a drop of blood and prepare with flour
Make a tasty gravy, add spices to taste
In the way the deer dance in heavy monsoon night,
musk-scented just like that, mix and blend secretly
the rhythm of their steps in every line
Now spread roasted words over the surface
with fresh coriander and green lemon
While hot like the round petals of lotus,
serve it in white paper, one after another
 
and readers will taste it, saying: magnificent.

Shaswata Gangopadhyay (India) is one of the Prominent faces of Contemporary Bengali Poetry ,who started writing in the mid-90s. Born and brought up in Kolkata, Shaswata has participated in different virtual poetry festivals across Europe, as well as North and Latin America. His poetry books include Inhabitant of Pluto Planet (2001), Offspring of Monster (2009) and Holes of Red Crabs (2015).