The Soviet Union Poem by Pallab Chaudhury

I stand near by an old book shelf;
The craftsman of the time
Once offered this colourful dream-magazine;
Today it's under the dust…

I recall the disastrous event;
My mister was also alive then…
The arrears of the paper are still lying therewith.
Who looks for a penny when a ship sinks?
The then soft and scented pages
Now turned into grey, gloomy and brittle…

To what extent, if someone loves
Only then browses old paper archives?

I was just married then-
And had a passion
Of reading story books;
I rewind the tape of the time…
Sayera- Munira- Nilufa, the characters of short story
Crumble under the four-layer dust…
I stretch my hand

On hearing the loud hawker's voice
Suddenly my hand leaned
And touched a thin news bulletin

While dusting out, the cover-page smiled
With a picture of V.I. Lenin…


(Dated: 10-01-2018) .
*The Soviet Union was a literary organ
of the then USSR few decades ago.