Poetry

Animesh Hazra photo

By

Jagari Mukherjee

Mermaid

I was a mermaid

Now turned into a woman

Almost drowning in the stormy seas

Where once I glided with ease.

I have limbs now instead of silver fins

And I stand drenched and shivering

On the shores, afraid of

The unknown darkness around me.

I search for you to cling to, to clutch at,

And am conscious of being bare

Covered only by my long seaweed-entangled damp hair

Like a drape for you to part.

I was a mermaid swimming and singing free

And now, caught in the nets

By you, I turned into a woman

Holding moonlit seashells in my palms

To offer you – I am dumb;

I lost my voice as I transformed

And so, the seashells will tell you

My story, will tell you

That I came to this deserted beach

Only to lay myself at your feet

Along with the foam

Of the waves crashing,

Washing, all over me.

For you,

A mermaid exposes herself

To the naked vulnerability

Of seashells crushed easily

By the overwhelming lovely pain

Of the shadow

Of your presence

By the sea.

Sojourns Into My Mind

During the lonely sojourns

Into my mind

I pick up poems

Like ripe fruit

Of edible colors

That I mix in the palette

With the blue hues

Of the darkness pulsating

Within my very existence

Like a lover eager

To pull me down every time

And impregnate me

With more words…

To please this darkness – my lover –

I adorn my hair with a comb

Made of stars

And then, like a miracle

Each tooth of the comb

Turns into a quill

Dipped in the inkpot

Full of dark blue ink

Of the darkness spreading

Across my Being

Like a lover’s palms.

Jagari Mukherjee

Jagari Mukherjee is a bilingual poet from Kolkata, India. She is a gold medallist in English Literature from University of Pune. Her writings have appeared in several newspapers, magazines, anthologies and blogs. Her first book, a collection of poems entitled Blue Rose, was published in May 2017.