Ashok Niyogi kingfisher dives for fish when the tiger is coming the monkeys know from treetops oh so many greens on this ochre mountain such glorious parakeet pea-hen sit camouflaging peacock eggs jackal husband and jackal wife walk over rounded stone mellowed by river for a few moments someone weeps loudly in yellowed grassland interrupting the buzz of thousands of gnats and then we can hear the setting sun Ashok Niyogi was born in...

Ashok Niyogi tigers saunter in for Western Union from their non-resident children oak forests have walked away and left behind a two-blade ceiling fan a hundred years ago here Corbett shot a man-eating leopard in the kitchen garden the ‘India Post’ cottage on the ridge has an artist postmaster with gerbera and carnation in his hair grey with time deposits that fathers bequeath their sons and diesel fumes that the hill-girls now carry as...

Ashok Niyogi that orphan child made a deal with her fairy godmother once back home after the excursion was over she would quietly lie in the darkness of an Indian noon and go to sleep with her mother such are animals riding toy trains in zoological gardens Ashok Niyogi was born in Calcutta in 1955. He has two published collections of poetry in India—Crossroads and Reflections in the Dark (both from A-4 Publications) and has one published...