Poetry

Andris Romanovskis photo

By

Sharmila Ray

Trying Times

It is a difficult time-

a tragic time.

The sun rises

but the blocks remain dark

and doubtful fingers half open

apartment doors with apprehension.

The newspapers are chronicles

of victims and villains.

Monday mornings are dark lines

interweaving the metropolis,

breaking into grids of

power and isolation.

Deep groans intersperse

the concrete, i pods and brain.

The boxy high rises are craters

holding heat.

But somewhere beyond

the octopus-growth

a fenceless world tries to

stand on crutches.

Turnip

You are already turning into a turnip

in a landscape where the sky is rust magnet

and scars emerge magnified  on the demented screen

of politics.

The hard casing of mediocrity leaves you intact.

Entombed in shameless vulgarity, your blatant life

fans out from room to roads to cities

and power centers.

You feed with your eyes only.

But what if vibrations fermented in heaven

hits you in the eye, will you then write your

own script, unlock the gate of hypnotic siesta

and let lemon grass and thyme grow on your

front yard?

Will you then let anti-matter drop from ceiling

collapsing on the playground

of your thought?

Sharmila Ray

Sharmila Ray is a poet and non- fiction essayist, anthologized in India and abroad. She has nine volumes of poetry. She is the HOD. Of Hist. City College, Kolkata. She is the vice president of Intercultural Poetry And Performance Library, Kolkata. Her poems have been translated into Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Slovene, Hebrew and Spanish.  Currently she is working on a manuscript of non-fictional essays.