Kingshuk Sarkar lives in Kolkata (India) and works as a Spanish teacher and translator. His English poems have appeared in 'Palette Poetry', 'Litbreak', 'Haiku Shack' and other journals. Bengali literary magazines like 'Desh' have published his Bengali poems. His poetry translations (from Bengali to English) have appeared in 'Circumference', 'Modern Poetry in Translation', 'Another Chicago Magazine', 'Visions International', 'Washington Square Review' and other journals.

Kingshuk Sarkar

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The Status Quo

The war has not stopped
though the warriors
stand at surrender –
spears pointed at one another
knives held firmly in mid-air.

I have stopped
for the war looks peaceful from here –
everybody is in perfect position
everybody is in the middle of action
everybody is at war.

I had to stop
to stop the bodies
from moving further.

I had to stop
to complete
the picture.