Tell me what to feel!
Please tell me what I should feel!
I read an obit this morning,
I need help!
I knew this person,
Worked for him,
Was a buffer for him.
Tried to keep his craziness from becoming an infection.
I should forgive him.
It is supposed to be a good thing to do.
For me, I don’t understand forgiveness,
Besides, I’m not the one his example killed,
I’m not the surviving family, only a surrogate.
The social environment protected him – but not the rest of us.
Now I know. Now I’m smarter. Now I know it was fuelled by alcohol.
I should have been smarter then, stronger.
I should have always been smarter.
I should be smarter today –
It’s been fifty years now, so
Tell me what should I feel!
Ron Pickett is a retired naval aviator with over 250 combat missions and 500 carrier landings. His 90-plus articles have appeared in numerous publications. He enjoys writing fiction and has published five books: Perfect Crimes – I Got Away with It, Discovering Roots, Getting Published, EMPATHS, and Sixty Odd Short Stories.
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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
A translation from Nabendu Ghosh’s autobiography, Eka Naukar Jatri(Journey of a Lonesome Boat), translated by Dipankar Ghosh, from Bengali post scripted by Ratnottama Sengupta. Clickhereto read.
Ueharaby Kamaleswar Barua has been translated from Assamese and introduced by Bikash K. Bhattacharya. Clickhere to read.
Kurigram by Masud Khan has been translated by Professor Fakrul Alam from Bangla. Clickhere to read.
Bonfire by Ihlwha Choi has been translated from Korean by the poet himself. Clickhere to read.
In Indian Pale Ale, Rhys Hughes experiments with words and brews. Click here to read.
Conversation
Being fascinated with the human condition and being vulnerable on the page are the two key elements in the writing of fiction, author and poet Heidi Northtells Keith Lyons in a candid conversation. Clickhere to read.
In Multicultural Curry, Suzanne Kamata reflects on mingling of various cultures in her home in Japan and the acceptance it finds in young hearts. Clickhere to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta explores the poetry in lyrics of Bollywood songs, discussing the Sahityotsav (Literary Festival) hosted by the Sahitya Akademi. Clickhere to read.
We thought it might be over;
Wars and rumours of wars.
Then Russia invaded.
It was a short incursion,
They said.
Ukraine was their territory
Anyway, anyway!
They said,
It was too costly to try we thought,
Wars and rumours of wars.
Sanctions! we said.
They couldn’t take the sanctions.
The Russians couldn’t.
But they fought back
The Ukrainians fought back
They weren’t supposed to.
They were supposed to be easy pickins’;
A walk in the park,
A few weeks, an exercise
A year has passed.
60000 Russians are dead. Or 200000
15 thousand Ukrainians or 100000
Ukraine is blackened rubble.
The snow is red with blood.
All is dark
There is no winner.
We were wrong,
We were so wrong!
Wars and rumours of wars
They are still there.
Peace is not a part of our nature!
China lusts for Taiwan.
Shalom.
Ron Pickett is a retired naval aviator with over 250 combat missions and 500 carrier landings. His 90-plus articles have appeared in numerous publications. He enjoys writing fiction and has published five books: Perfect Crimes – I Got Away with It, Discovering Roots, Getting Published, EMPATHS, and Sixty Odd Short Stories.
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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
Abhirup Dhar, a horror writer whose books are being extensively adopted by Bollywood, talks about his journey and paranormal experiences. Click here to read.
Translations
Munshi Premchand’s Balak or the Child has been translated from Hindi by Anurag Sharma. Click hereto read.
Atta Shad’s Today’s Child has been translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
Masud Khan’s History has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Ihlwha Choi translates his own poem,Lunch Time, from Korean. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Somudro or Ocean has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
FORM VS FUNCTION
Stiletto heels in graveyard sod.
Shorts in a ski lift line.
Sneakers with a tuxedo
Style over substance
An apron over jeans.
Slippers – ever.
Form follows function,
Except when it doesn’t!
The rules we accept
Vs the rules we ignore,
My faded, frayed pale blue floppy hat.
The ultimate victory of Function over Form,
Of Substance over Style,
Of Utility over Beauty
I love my floppy hat.
FREE LUNCH At CHIPOTLE!
How did we get here?
It’s noon, lunch time as I walk across the parking lot.
Four teenage girls, casually dressed, emerge from Chipotle.
Orders from the Web are on a table near the front door.
Orders paid for, filled and waiting for their owner.
One girl carries a large Chipotle bag.
They walk to a Lexus.
I hear a voice. “Stop I want to look at that bag,”
I see a server from the restaurant following the girls.
They hurriedly get into the car.
The voice repeats, “I want to look at that bag!”
She takes a picture of the license plate.
The girl in the back seat opens her door.
The server takes the bag, looks at the tag.
The car leaves -- quickly.
It’s an old Lexus.
I hear one of the onlookers ask the server, “How did you know what they were doing?”
“It’s their behaviour!”
I shout to the server, “Great job, Thank you!”
I wonder, “How did we get here?”
Ron Pickett is a retired naval aviator with over 250 combat missions and 500 carrier landings. His 90-plus articles have appeared in numerous publications. He enjoys writing fiction and has published five books: Perfect Crimes – I Got Away with It, Discovering Roots, Getting Published, EMPATHS, and Sixty Odd Short Stories.
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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
In Conversation with Abhay K, a poet turned diplomat, translator and a polyglot, converses of how beauty inspired him to turn poet and translating Kalidasa and other poets taught him technique. Click here to read.
Between 1990 and 2017 one in seven people in India suffered from mental illness. However, the depiction of this in cinema has been poor and sensationalist contends Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri. Click hereto read.
The Observant Immigrant
In The Immigrant’s Dilemma, Candice Louisa Daquin explores immigrants and the great American Dream. Click hereto read.
I LOVE COLOUR
The dawn sun reflects from windows across the valley.
It makes me warm with excitement.
I love colour; I always have.
I love the yellow-green of newly erupted leaves in the sun.
I love the red straws of the bottle brush
I love neutral greys, taupes, and tans --
Not so much for themselves,
But for the setting they give to oranges and deep chocolate browns.
I love the blue-grey of shadows -- for their colour,
And for the shape they give.
I love the ruby red of a laser; the brilliant green of an LED –
They’re new colours and most of humanity will not recognise them.
I love fluorescent lights for the different way they offer to see things.
I marvel at a field of ranunculus, or lavenders, or tulips.
I love a field of rows of corns or beans or lettuces.
I am delighted by the blues of roofs in Santorini and doors in Egypt.
Of the cerulean blue of the sky.
And the unworldly iridescence of a moth’s wing.
Colour, don’t know what I’d do without it!
Ron Pickett is a retired naval aviator with over 250 combat missions and 500 carrier landings. His 90-plus articles have appeared in numerous publications. He enjoys writing fiction and has published five books: Perfect Crimes – I Got Away with It, Discovering Roots, Getting Published, EMPATHS, and Sixty Odd Short Stories.
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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
We did it! … Announcing our first anthology … Monalisa No Longer Smiles… Click here to read.
Conversations
Suchen Christine Lim, an iconic writer from Singapore in conversation about her latest book, Dearest Intimate. Click here to read.
Blazing trails, as well as retracing the footsteps of great explorers, Christopher Winnan, a travel writer, delves into the past, and gazes into the future while conversing with Keith Lyons. Click hereto read.
Saturday Afternoon is a poem by Ihlwha Choi, translated from Korean by the poet himself. Click here to read.
Tagore’s poem, Tomar Shonkho Dhulay Porey (your conch lies in the dust), has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty as The Conch Calls. Click here to read.
Basudhara Roy has reviewed Afsar Mohammad’s Evening with a Sufi: Selected Poems, translated from Telugu by Afsar Mohammad and Shamala Gallagher. Click hereto read.
Thump, whirr, snap.
Wow, that was quite a ride!
I guess I’ll stay here for a while.
It’s not like I have a choice.
I fell, don’t know from where exactly.
Then I rolled along the ground until
I dropped into this crack in the pavement.
You don’t know me – people call me a weed seed. And no, I’m not that kind of weed.
I don’t much like it – weed seed sounds bland, boring, dull.
I’m NOT! I’m not boring. Just wait! Plant seed maybe?
I’ll stay here in this crack for a while, don’t have a choice.
I’m waiting for rain; that’s all it takes.
Then you’ll see. That’s all that it takes.
Rocks, Concrete, hard dirt, trees, grass, anything!
Just wait ‘til it rains, then I’m outta here!
Not really outta here, but zoom, I’m alive and growing like a, well, a weed.
What kind of plant will I be? Couldn’t see what I dropped from.
Don’t know, could be a ground hugger – ground cover – that would be okay.
Could be milkweed; that white goo might be fun.
Could be a dandelion: Dandy? Lion that’s me!
Could be mustard; you get a lot of kids, seeds that is, to spread around.
I like those weeds, make that plants with sharp spikes, and purple flowers.
I could be a thistle, all those flying seeds, and spikes, perfect.
Or a nettle, a stinging nettle, that would show them!
Here comes one of those pesky humans.
Whoops he’s looking right at me! Whoo-Hoo, he’s gone; guess I’m too small to be seen.
Thing about being a weed seed is that if it doesn’t rain, no big deal.
I can wait for months, years even, then face it, I’m sure not alone.
I know a guy, says he’s a Darwinian gardener; lets the fittest survive.
Beautiful yard. He’s a great friend to us weeds.
Keep an eye out for me after it rains, after I sprout; you’ll be surprised!
Beautiful leaves, gorgeous flowers, unsurpassed tenacity, and a lust for life.
But you have to look carefully, and it’s okay to pull us – we’ve got millions of relatives!
Ron Pickett is a retired naval aviator with over 250 combat missions and 500 carrier landings. His 90-plus articles have appeared in numerous publications. He enjoys writing fiction and has published five books: Perfect Crimes – I Got Away with It, Discovering Roots, Getting Published, EMPATHS, and Sixty Odd Short Stories.
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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
Anthony Sattin, an award winning journalist and travel writer in conversation about Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped our World, his recent book published by Hachette, India. Click hereto read.
VR Devika talks of the dynamic Muthulakshmi Reddy, the first woman in the world to preside over a Legislative Assembly who sought justice for Devadsis and prostitutes and discusses her book, Muthulakshmi Reddy: A Trailblazer in Surgery and Women’s Rights published by Niyogi Books. Click hereto read.
Translations
Daridro or Poverty by Nazrul has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
The Browless Dolls by S.Ramakrishnan, has been translated from Tamil by B Chandramouli. Click hereto read.
Two poems from Italy by Rosy Gallace have been translated from Italian by Irma Kurti. Click hereto read.
Aalo Amar Aalo (Light, My Light) a song by Tagore, has been translated by Mitali Chakravarty from Bengali. Click hereto read.
Pandies Corner
Songs of Freedom: Moh-Reenis an autobiographical story by Amreen, translated from Hindustani by Janees. These stories highlight the ongoing struggle against debilitating rigid boundaries drawn by societal norms, with the support from organisations like Shaktishalini and Pandies. Click hereto read.
Ravi Shankar recommends walking as a panacea to multiple issues, health and climate change and takes us on a tour of walks around the world. Click here to read.
Ali Jan Maqsood introduces us to a strong matriarch from a Balochi village. Click here to read.
Musings of a Copywriter
In Drill, Fill, Just Chill, Devraj Singh Kalsi gives us humour while under a dentist’s drill. Click here to read.
Notes from Japan
Suzanne Kamata writes of herA Ramble on Bizan, focussing on a writer, also by the surname of Moraes, who lived on Mount Bizan more than century ago, moving to Japan from Portugal having fallen violently in love. Click hereto read.
Borderless 