By: Tamoghna Mukherjee

Epiphany

God is God because it reciprocates our
verbose prayers with silent oblivion.
How closely we search for meaning in
reminiscence, how assiduous our efforts
are in eliciting metaphors from memory—
but, you see, here, no action becomes
music anymore, no scribbling incantation.

This is purely linguistic. The labyrinth of dirges,
the eddies of conversations, the intertwined
sinews of dreams—everything severs silence.
We have been taught to remember everything
through words, trained to reword our remembrance;
but when it comes to ethereal negotiations,
neither lexicon nor memory works properly.

What comes in handy is the smouldering
prudence of oblivion. The penumbra of
bliss unfurls within your blood the moment
you realise—even oblivion exists nowhere.

And God remains God because it never comes to know
that someone, somewhere, still calmly observes
the shrivelling of its all-pervasive shadow.

Palliation

Griefs regurgitated are no longer griefs.
They turn into dreams where corpuscles of
pleasure coagulate, where hymns of bliss
sound like long-lost, primordial dirges.

The days here are eventful, though.
The nights rustle through taciturn foliage.
Hearts of rocks transmit the fragrance of the sea,
and the zigzag trails of agile red crabs inscribe
palliation across the sequestered seashore.

Griefs remembered are griefs no more.
They transmigrate into mirrors reflecting
the visage of solace throughout the centuries,
refracting innumerable rays of memory towards nowhere.

The dawns here are pristine, though.
The twilights snake along the path of oblivion.
And the hearts of seastones still emanate
the aroma of dead waves lamented to date.

Whoever inhales it gets the curse of immortality.

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Tamoghna Mukherjee is a poet, translator, essayist, and PhD researcher writing in both Bengali and English. His work has appeared in several magazines, including Muse India, Poetry India, Verseville, Literary Cognizance, The Wise Owl, Bengal Letters, Anandabazar, and Desh. He is the author of three poetry collections and has translated the works of several Bengali poets into English.