Sweet child, do not be as wise as your parents by Kinshuk Gupta

Does it ever matter if a bullet is shot, and its body becomes a vessel of blood?

Sweet child, do not be as wise as your parents

by Kinshuk Gupta, translated by Dyuti Mishra

Stay stupid so the world pities you & leaves you alone. Listen to the music bubbling in the boiling broth. Preserve that papaya peel on which the cat left its claw marks before it died. Observe how a laughing man opens his body to the world like a hibiscus. Apologize to the ice cube as it loses its shape in your palm. Notice the delicate basket of light on the mango leaf. Smell the fragrant, floral notes of lemon zest when you feel exhausted to your bones. Pulp words like guarantee, planning, stability, turn them into a ring & hula hoop it on your waist. Trap a breath within your chest when you feel sad. Know a person beyond the shape of their limbs. Follow behind your dog. See the starkness of stamens against lily petals to learn patriarchal hierarchies. Feel hunger when you see a woman planting rice submerged in ankle-deep water. Think of incomplete kisses when a widow wipes the trickle of sweat before it reaches her lips. Learn that a kiss is the fourth basic necessity. Seek that kiss like a deer seeks a flash of light. Linger on its sparkling eyes, its leaping body, its restless feet. Does it ever matter if a bullet is shot, and its body becomes a vessel of blood? Look, instead, into its eyes as astonishment outweighs death. Watch, scan, stare, gaze in a way that it changes the world. When this doesn’t seem enough and you think of yourself as a fool, understand that this is the nature of capitalism. Hide and take refuge within yourself. The sole purpose of your life is to become a possibility.

First Published in Words Without Borders (Queer Poetry Issue, 2025)