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Poetry

The Kerosene Boy

By Anant Kumar
Translated from German by Marilya Veteto Reese

Daytimes
my Daddy
carries mail
while I’m sitting
here in school

    Evenings
    shopkeeper
    he
    and his salesman
    I

sells fresh produce
Mama
and kerosene
I
at the biggest circle
where lovely women up on
giant billboards

    when nighttimes
    the lamps flicker
    and it’s fragrant
    children work at
    lessons for school

Quite good
That’s me at numbers
Especially
fond of English.
Sudhir Kumar is my name
I am
9

From Stories without Borders. Forthcoming from Wiesenburg Verlag, Schweinfurt. Copyright Anant Kumar. By arrangement with the author and publisher. All rights reserved.

English

Daytimes
my Daddy
carries mail
while I’m sitting
here in school

    Evenings
    shopkeeper
    he
    and his salesman
    I

sells fresh produce
Mama
and kerosene
I
at the biggest circle
where lovely women up on
giant billboards

    when nighttimes
    the lamps flicker
    and it’s fragrant
    children work at
    lessons for school

Quite good
That’s me at numbers
Especially
fond of English.
Sudhir Kumar is my name
I am
9

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