Tushar Sen: 3 Quirky Poems
These selections offers a quirky and upbeat take on the subtle absurdities embedded in our daily routines, tech dependencies, and professional structures. Written with structured, rhythmic cadences, these poems are intentionally designed to find lighthearted irony and sharp comedic wit within frustrating modern realities.
The Algorithm Apologizes
I asked the bot to write a verse on grief;
It gave me something tidy, calm, and brief.
It rhymed my loss with “moss” and then with “air,”
And added, “Hope is statistically there.”
I said, “Be honest—what does sorrow do?”
It wrote: “Reduces output. Version two
May fix the issue. Kindly stand by, please.”
Then offered links and breathing exercises.
I tried again: “What happens when hearts break?”
It paused, then said: “A slight data mistake.
Reboot suggested. Loss is rarely fatal.”
(Which, frankly, felt both accurate and hateful.)
And though it spoke with confidence and grace,
It could not quite replace a human face.
For when I wept, it printed—calm, concise:
“Your tears have failed to optimize.”
The Meeting That Could Have Been an Email
At nine, we met to streamline what we do;
By ten, we’d formed a task force to review
The notes from last week’s meeting, which, in turn,
Reviewed the notes from meetings we adjourned.
At ten-fifteen, a deck was proudly shared
Explaining things for which we’d all prepared.
At ten-thirty, a graph was introduced
To show our meeting time had been reduced.
By eleven, someone bravely took the floor
To say what we had all said twice before.
We praised his insight, clarity, and tone,
And booked a call to make it fully known.
At noon, we closed with action items vague,
Assigned to groups we’d shortly reorganize again.
No problem solved—but, as our records deem:
We’ve greatly strengthened cross-functional regime.
Reviewer #2
We thank you for submission of your work,
Which shows great promise—though not yet, we note.
The topic, while not wholly without charm,
Has been explored with slightly greater form.
Your method strikes us novel, yet unclear—
Derivative in parts, but oddly new here.
Too broad to test, too narrow to apply,
It raises questions it does not deny.
The prose is dense, though somehow incomplete;
Both overlong and lacking in concrete.
Your figures fail to illustrate the claim,
Yet still contrive to complicate the same.
At times, the argument appears profound,
Until one asks what evidence is found.
The structure gestures boldly toward the new,
While circling points the old ones already knew.
We found the tone ambitious, though restrained,
Excessively precise, yet underexplained.
The framing seems at once too sharp, too wide,
With insufficient depth on either side.
We must reject. Still, should you persevere,
Reframe, revise, rethink your premise here—
With time, restraint, and several changes small,
This might become a different work in all.
About:
Tushar Sen pursues sustained creative and scholarly writing alongside his career in finance. He is the author of Pandora’s Box, a collection of short stories. In 2020, he wrote and produced a short film Zulfi, which screened internationally and received 22 laurels across 22 film festivals.
His poetry has appeared in The Mathematical Intelligencer(Springer-Nature), MENACE, Muse India, The Orchards Poetry Journal, The Deronda Review, Flora Fiction, New Verse Review, Writers Resist, Ecological Citizen, Varnish, Afrocritik, The Road Not Taken, Sortes, Lekh, Indian Review, 4LPH4NUM3R1C, SpecPo Verse, Infocalypse Arts & Literary Magazine, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, The Gilded Weathervane, Quill of the Goddess, Twisted River Review, EgoPHobia, Well Read Mag, Rivenery Literary and Mocking Heart Review.