When you reach out to touch the filtered sunshine
Amid the honking, hustling cacophony of known vehicles
A goodbye is just a whiff of longings in the air,
The criss-cross traversing of salty tears
Sleep-deprived, smirking in the impenetrable dark
Winking at stained, old oil lamps,
Inhaling their long, moist puff,
One that the senses circle around, like long-lost music and dance.
A goodbye is the soft trembling in the early fog
Of the mornings where your coffee spills
In the folds and creases of your forsaken notebooks.
A goodbye is the thirsty licking of your lips
When you reach out to touch the filtered sunshine
Amid the honking, hustling cacophony of known vehicles
And let them hide your undulations, your ripples,
Your ardour, gone awry…
In every goodbye,
let there be the rambling of lost loves.
Let there be the confession and clinking of
Abandoned corners, the concoction of memories spilled,
Truths swallowed, wounds imprinted.
Let them burn your tongue as you slip away,
Slowly, into nothingness.
(January 5, 2015)
Pic courtesy: Pixabay
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Lopamudra Banerjee is an acclaimed author, poet, translator, editor with nine solo books and six anthologies in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. She has received the Journey Awards (First Place category winner) for her memoir
Thwarted Escape: An Immigrant’s Wayward Journey, the International Reuel Prize for Translation (2016) and also International Reuel Prize for Poetry (2017) and other honors. Her poetry has been published in renowned platforms including Life in Quarantine, the Digital Humanities Archive of Stanford University. Her collaborative poetry collection with Priscilla Rice titled
We Are What We Are (Black Eagle Books, 2022) has been 1st Prize Winner at New York Book Festival 2024 and her translation of a famous Bengali historical/biographical novel titled
The Bard and His Sister-in-Law (Black Eagle Books, 2023) has received Honorary Mention at Paris Book Festival and Hollywood Book Festival 2024. Recently, her debut Bengali collection of poetry
Draupadi Theke Nijoswi—Amra has been launched in Kolkata and also in the Dallas Public Library, Texas, with a performance of a psychological drama ‘Mukhomukhi’, in which she has made her foray as a playwright.
All Posts of Lopamudra Banerjee
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Heartfelt poem that isn’t syrupy. Enjoyed it.
Thanks a lot, Sanjeev Sethi jee!
Hooked from the very first line! Great poetry!
Thanks a ton, dear Reena!