By- Neelabh Sourav.
Translated from Assamese by: Bibekananda Choudhury.


I saw a variegated face on your hands
I saw a chequered venomous snake
Eyes bulging
Cheek nose swelled up like the character
in the painting of Van Gogh
Coughing intermittently
I saw an amazing sight on your palms
Magical actor fingers
I got startled on reading
What have you written

How dare you
Making a mincemeat of people
What an astonishing devilish pen I saw
On your hands

id rather .... myself
than pass on
some of these thoughts
lingering in my head
but... never mind the killing part
ill just say whats ripping apart
my brain
all my friends may be fake
no similar interests
no same views and perspectives
no inspirations collected
but thats to be expected
nowadays, where man views itself
as an ant
every single bit of hope rejected and neglected by the world
until the bitter end
no confidence, so nothing to
boost there
all the dreams and hopes
planted inside the ***
overshadowed by doubts and insecurities
no sunlight
be aware of life, don’t follow the snake
and it‘ll eat you too
on its way back
the circle of life

How dare you?
How dare you do this to me?
I, who have put so much trust in you
And you take all that trust away
And shatter it into a million tiny pieces
Leaving me, frozen with shock
To watch helplessly
Cursing my poor luck
And praying desperately
That the day should end
So that I can at least begin afresh

How dare you?
How dare you do this to me?
How dare you think
That you shall get away with it?
You, shall pay for your actions
I shall transform myself
Into the monstrous form
Of a King Cobra
As I quietly, but swiftly
Gently, but firmly
Slither towards your pathetic form
I relish that fear in your eyes
As I raise my majestic hood
I see you cower in terror
As I hiss in a quiet, but deadly manner
I see you whimper and moan
However, as always, I am totally unmoved
Before you can say "mercy"
I strike, and strike repeatedly
Enjoying that wonderful feeling
Of my long and razor-sharp fangs
Sinking into your warm flesh
Relishing that wonderful taste
Of the warm and delicious blood
That runs through your veins
As my highly neurotoxic venom
Pierces every nerve and sinew of your body
Every artery and vein
I can sense, that Justice has been served
As your body becomes immobile
And crumbles in a heap
I hiss once more
As if to say again, "How dare you?"

Hazy forest
A huge, solid snake slithers
betrayed by the grass

And the blind venture on the misgivings
          of what they do not see.


But heed whispers from
         a snakes tonuge,
to bite them upon there vulnerabilities.

Seeping Ill words beneath
                             there morality.

Man does not need the whispers
of snakes to control them,
but the reality of humanity.


To  awaken the truth
                    that were just human.

dont follow the green
dont follow the snake
it'll eat you too
on its way back

Through each situation,
           You’re a new person, conformist.
Body like a snake,
                The serpent himself
        See him? Contorting, twisting, fitting.
He’s the Man of the hour.
                Dripping like solid gold, are his words.
                        The “audience” stands captivated.
          Almost frozen, I’ve lost my tongue.
Unable to speak, I’m no match
          - For you.

you are you are you are
shaking and holding yourself as your shell-shocked body buzzes with
sleepless anxiety that sunk its fangs deep into your skull
piercing your brain

stealing last night’s dream from its marbled pink nest
venom covered bone snapping the small bird’s neck
before dragging it away
to be swallowed whole

like a snake with its unhinged jaw and
malformed neck
and grating hiss escaping
like steam from between scales that dress its body

you arm yourself with a shovel and you feel the
Crunch
of a severed spine through the handle
the vibrations melding with your skin as the ***** hits the bricks below

you kick away the bleeding head before
reaching down its throat and
squeezing the other end to push
the decomposed baby bird into your

color-drained
and
bloodstained
palm

you wince as you toss the long
gnarled and
finally motionless body to the grass
and slide the dream back into its nest

coated in acid and venom and melting through your skull
one day-- like its hunter--
this bird will grow scales and slither and steal more of you
and you will continue to shake