(After Li Po)
I gaze out my frozen window.
I look at my unmade bed.
The sun’s rays are weak.
Last month I saw flowers,
now it’s ice instead.
A chilling breeze
stirs a few pathetic leaves.
The moon is a ball of lead,
suspended in a sterile sky,
silent and dead.
I gaze at distant stars,
lost in an infinite sky.
I feel the approaching cold.
I’ve just turned sixty-five.
I don’t need to be told.
Self-pity is not
an exclusive priviledge of the old.
Poetry
October Arrives | George Freek
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The Blue Jacaranda | Saranyan Bv
By: Saranyan BvI am sixty-four and retired.The nurses with white clipper crownsAre chattering medicationFor the stroke patientWho arrived Sunday lastAnd about his chicken-shit NeuroWith a penchant for eating Ilish Beja fry.Holter wires and Intravenous tubes removed,I look out the window behindFrom the…
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Remember Me, Love | Abhik Ganguly
By: Abhik GangulyWhen the evening light fadesleaving behind a trail of memoriesremember me, love.In the haunting nightsof neon-lit alleywaysWearing a black kurta, with a ‘Q & Q’Quartz wrist-watchThat my father gave.The jhumka1 that adorns youPuts my soul in a tranceWhere the distant…
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Song of Tombs in Tumult | Abhik Ganguly
By: Abhik GangulyCan you hearremnants of whispersechoing through thedistant lands of death?Where crushed twigslike lace, lie atthe taakh1, in tightembrace of solitude.The songs of lovesung here – that dwell in myheart’s cave – guard decadenttombs in tumult.Nostalgic scents waftof those buried withtheir…
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Drifted | Dr. Swatee Miittal
Lifted in a blanket of white, always Floating drifting away into the familiar unknown Veiled by a thin misty layer, Everywhere you go. When was the last time you felt like you, you thought like you, you were really awake…
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Demoness | Jahnavi Gogoi
By: Jahnavi GogoiGoxanis had long, flowing hair, slaying demons who had ungodliness spiraling out of their skull. Rakshasi. That slur had coiled around her like a Malati on a bamboo trellis. It was a trenchant rhyme recited by schoolboysfollowing her like shikras.…
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A Love Spurned | Bobby Pawar
By: Bobby PawarIf I cannot have you, allow me to love your shadow,even though Icannot hold itclose to my breath.If I cannot lie with youin the thorns and flowersof romance, leave me the clippings of your finger nailsto put in a locketnext…
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Durga | Bobby Pawar
By: Bobby PawarAs disposable as bagsof plastic, as parents whose duty is done, as any condom, as an employee whose time has come, as a wife infertile, as an election posterafter the lies have all been bought,as a prostitute’s feelings,as toys an…
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Addicted | Bobby Pawar
By: Bobby PawarWe met in the admissions line in junior college. I ran to grab the place behind you, hoping you would talk to me. I am sorry you did.You asked me if I’d like to come to your birthday party. I…
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The Girl Who Taught Me Numbers | Bobby Pawar
By: Bobby PawarFour days late.Patience’s cupboardnow lies bare.Six and forty games of mindless solitaire.Two people wait for the water to break.One trickle. One gush.One, ‘Oh god!’, and one, ‘did you get my stuff?’Seven cabs go by.Curses too, multiplied by two.One stops, many…
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The Dancing Stage | Shailey Bellamkonda
The dancers align All red birds with golden crests.They twirl and bend and glide, like god’s own beamIf not for their red robes, they might well be swans.The drums and violin join the stream.A gentle melody in sight and sound…
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The Unthinking | Komal Gupta
By: Komal GuptaLet words be words, said strung on precarious, unthinking lines.A fall into an abyss, a person’s self-worth, deep down into damning darkness, no light at the end of a long-winded, long-timed tunnel.A stranger, a loved one, an acquaintance, a friend,or…
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October Arrives | George Freek
By: George Freek(After Li Po)I gaze out my frozen window.I look at my unmade bed.The sun’s rays are weak.Last month I saw flowers,now it’s ice instead.A chilling breezestirs a few pathetic leaves. The moon is a ball of lead,suspended in a sterile…