By: Gopal Lahiri

Mother’s history

Here the women take on mother’s history,
The caress of a finger, a faint touch,

the idea of a shelter, the silent ecstasy
in the womb;

A city square recalls the bliss
of a love affair, speaking through the iron wall,

the old bus stop is now a blank page
in the book, returning the tobacco scent,

the library window reminding the forsaken lover,
corridors are full of stories,

a tiny bird is flying over tramlines,
and the story continues,

crossing bridges floating in a haze,
swallow everything,

the shadows of its trees bring memories
bleeding in grief,

the graffiti on the long winding fence
inventing the cell-dividing mass,

mothers now soak in the unspoken teardrops.
……………………………………………………………………

Moments

I know what I have to do now,
Each cell demands a winnable fight,

Not knowing the fallouts,
The twilight stripped down to a lean ray,

Running water’s edge-
The tall grass caressing fingers,

Evening breeze comes like a healer
But the darkness lingers in spine, in iris,

With lofty promise and deep learning
come some unknown peril,

Memories spin and at the end teach me
Something that I never care to listen.

Knowing moments are temporary,
I pick one by one and blow them away.

_____

Cocoon

There are no stories,

Here each night is mundane and lonely
The featherless night-birds spread their wings.

The moment I’m looking for is buried,
Beneath the dark staircase,

Each wound I polish on the secret stone shines
In false lights; it’s nostalgic too,

And strangely when a lizard cry
The moon goes behind the clouds,

There is a warm darkness throughout the house.

Every musical note now holds its own in silence,

The broken wall scribbles the forgotten words.
Corridors are filling up with selected alphabets,

A new world waits on the rooftop’s ledge.

……………………………………………………………….
Gopal Lahiri was born and grew up in Kolkata, India. He is an earth-scientist by profession. Besides, he is a bilingual poet, writer, editor, critic and translator and published in Bengali and English language. He has authored seven volumes of poetry in Bengali and nine volumes in English and jointly edited one anthology of poems in English. His poetry is also published across various anthologies as well as in eminent journals of India and abroad. He is the recipient of the Poet of the Year Award in Destiny Poets, UK, 2016. He can be reached at glahiri@gmail.com