I am walking, erratic, stable,Even if I fall flat on my faceyou suddenly appear beside me, Your footsteps wandering to go awayAnd return. With the ashes scattered Into the river, you look like you’re barely 40, With the dark hair and twinkling eyes Of the man that I remember, edging me alongEven on the darkest nights. Because it’s hot You’re…
Tag: poetry
To Ma, on Mother’s Day.
I hoped to be free of seeking attention From the external world, from you, Even from those I hold as my own. The world overwhelms me, something You gifted me, I have given of myself Till there is nothing more to give. My needs, my errors, my missteps Were and are unforgiveable. I had chances…
Non sequitur
No one became a beggar feeding others, no one got killed by some rain, no one, no one and nothing can save another from pain. It is possible to make a phrase sound so beautiful, there’s a rhythm to it, I could paint some notes for you, Like a Gaugin, or a Vermeer, or I…
Remember me.
You saved me, you should remember me. That time when the waters uploaded on train tracks I had no money, 48 hours plus you helped me back. The time when I was lost you pretended I was your girl violated the curfew to reach my father in hospital. The time I was roaming the night…
To town!
Daughters. Taught to live this way or that. I had no role model no one to take over when I was gone. How, then could I protect them, how then could I shape them, away from the frowns? There were no podcasts, no Insta advice, I wrote those parenting blogs lamenting, venting, ranting out my thoughts….
Walk with me
A five year old me came to me, asking why. I told her I was part of an unbalanced load struggling to get by. She hugged my soul, the decisions and memories we make are too much, too much, so we all scream at night, some silently and some in some obstinate “work”. I told…
Room 375.
It rained last night as I slept unaware; in Room 375 you can barely hear the outside world except for the beeping of machines and emergency codes announced. At some point it was cold, too cold as I thrashed at the shores of sleep listening to my daughter as she breathed, even and easy. This…
The seen and unseen
The sun had not yet risen, the two third moon making it’s way to a corner of the sky drawing the curtain of dawn, the seen and unseen. In the jungle only two truths prevail, the living and the prey the only commandment worthwhile that remains, the seen and unseen. Our guide tells us there…
I’m fine.
“I am fine,” a means to endure every obstacle and thought. This is me walking myself, the dogs, crawling into bed naked, quiet in my weight. I’m that empty bank account, the flickering glow-worm in the dark, the primal scream of being who I am. I’m not here, the body speaks at last. If nothing works,…
the last watch.
after he died, i wore my father’s watch an old bulky HMT you had to wind, and too large for my wrist. i fought my mother for it, Baba used it all the time, when he still had time. it was heavy and real and reminded me of all that i lost. of course i…
ipsita banerjee 