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Whirling and whirling through the amorous night,

The hungry songbird wandered in the city garden.

Speaking and speaking with other songbirds,

His two eyes rested on her in an age-old room.

Her eyes were mining in the deep-dived earth,

Whereas he could hear every melody of her mining.

The morning was hiding the earth-soaked melancholy;

In a slice of time, ‘Twinkle’ came in a stardust night.

The songbird died with the half-baked umbra of light;

His hope turned to dust. ‘Twinkle’ stopped twinkling!

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Suman Mondal is a poet, student, and researcher from West Bengal, India. His philosophical poems, stories, and essays have appeared multiple times in The Statesman, a well-respected Indian newspaper, most recently in its prestigious Festival Issues of 2024 and 2025. His other works have been published in Lekh Magazine, Faith Hope & Fiction, Spillwords, Brief Wilderness, Literary Yard, Apotheca Journal, Hollow and Sky Literary Journal, Bharat Patriotism Magazine, DoubleSpeak Magazine, Exclamation Mark Literary Journal, and Ultramarine Literary Review. He was shortlisted for the Young Writers Journal’s Weekly Prize in 2025. He is currently pursuing an honours degree in English Literature at Rampurhat College.