Between Two Points
Between two breaths, between two beats
is probability.
Between two meals is hunger, growing sharp
and chiselled into a brittle rib cage.
Our bodies are empty space; between two bodies is lust,
pure in flesh and tainted by feelings.
There is no such thing as ‘between feelings—’
once you harden, you cannot grow back into spring.
Then there is love—a string of withered sighs
and fading notes through the years.
Between two loves is an abyss of hurt and denial,
and putting things back together like a fractured doll.
We never see ourselves as whole,
we only see our broken parts and believe in them.
There is no shame in being broken and many parts.
You are always between two loves until you die.
Between two deaths we do not know,
and there is nothing unless we are reborn.
Life is between two points of promise and freedom,
between two wars stretching its fragile fabric
to cover the face of man.
Between two births there is an equal number of deaths.
Between two poems are sleepless nights and snowflakes
falling in silence.
First Published
Flare: The Flagler Review, April, 2026
Come, Become Whole
Come, bring me your timeless fatigue,
bring me your burden of dread.
The chill of frozen horizons along the way,
the unconquered and unfulfilled desires of generations.
Bring me your colossal sadness.
The remains of your dead civilisations
packed into earthen artefacts,
the sterile and numb poems failing to come alive.
With the emptiness of all your longings,
come to me, like the heavy sigh of the northern winds
through the pine trees,
moaning and curving along the white slopes
with no hiatus to stop, no place to rest.
Come along the purple-blue shades of the snow
like truth basking in the warmth of pale glow.
Become untouched,
believe you are unscathed and pure,
that you are free from victory and defeat,
you have battled your darkness
and not fallen from glory.
Let this moment take away everything
and you become whole.
Come, sit here calmly, let me wipe off
the grime and sweat from your forehead.
Madhu Kailas
Madhu Kailas is the pen name of Kingshuk Basu. He is a native of Kolkata, India and has lived in various places in India and USA. He is the author of two poetry selections, ‘The Birds Fly in Silence,’ 2014 by Writer’s Workshop Kolkata and ‘The Boatman of Murshidabad,’ 2021 by Aleph. His third poetry book, ‘O’ Beloved, The Heart Sings,’ a composition of 100 Rubai on the theme of love, is scheduled to be published in 2026 by Aleph.
He has been published in journals like Indian Literature, The Amistad, Acumen, Slippery Elm, The Gateway Review, California Quarterly, Plainsongs Poetry Magazine, The Bosphorus Book Review, Marathon Literary Review, Dragon Poet Review, New Mexico Review, Sutterville Review, The Punch Magazine, The Shallow Tales Review, ‘Converse’ – an anthology of 75 years of Indian poetry in English, The Literary Voyage, and Langlit.
He also loves music, painting, gardening, and traveling. He studied Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and Business Management at Michigan State University. He works in the retail, consumer, and digital industries. He lives with his family in Kolkata.