Poetry: Ajanta Paul

Ajanta Paul

1. Eternity Unrationed

Father was seventy four at the time.
The doctor studied his X ray plates and said,
Though scarred his lungs would bear up awhile,
So it was not what I was fearing.
We came out,
My hand in his, carrying in the other
The reports and prescriptions
That stuck out in an untidy paper bouquet.
The reprieve was sweet, tucked in the soul
Like a childhood lozenge under the tongue,
Releasing its nectar little by little
Into the mingled tastes of life.
Some more years with him?
It was eternity unrationed
For a while.


2. Diamond Vision

It lingered on the lashes of time
Like a drop of rain
Against the camera lens,
Taut and trembling
In its translucent transience
Sliding reluctantly down the glass
In a doomed trajectory, alas!
A natural lens, gleaming, pearled
On man's machine crafted one
Striving to focus, splintering the sun
Onto the pulsating pinpoint of phenomena,
To pluck the heart out of this world
And serve its palpitating core
Raw and infinitely sore…
To those hungry for the truth.
But in sooth
Capturing only
A rippled replica
Of the same
On a ripped retina
That strained for more.


3. Stowaway

Crouched with head
 Bowed  over knees
Drawn tightly up to the chest
In the freezing, dark, crowded hold,
Breath barely exhaled,
Back sore and stiff,
A silent plaintiff,
In life’s lengthy lawsuit he grew old.

Contraband cargo,
He had no say
Which way to go
Or where to stay
In the to and fro
Between change and the status quo.
He may not be dredged
Up from the depths of the heart
Where he's destined to remain, unsalvaged.


4. Nocturnal Rhapsody

The low-flying airplane’s overhead drone
Had a homebound hum in its tone,
Quietly reassuring in the promise
Of its dying fall...
Signifying its imminent arrival
In night's capacious hold-all.
It sang of a quiet meeting up,
And closing of the gap.
T’was music to the ears
After these many long years,
As it sang of compensating
Providence's parsimony,
With this nocturnal rhapsody.
A touch of comfort
Like a blanket drawn
Up to the chin
In a cold dawn,
All alone.


5. Felled

Words sputtered like mustard seeds
On the hot griddle of her tongue
Darting, prancing, dancing off the same
In the pyrotechnics of pain and blame,
Till I felt a shuddering stab,
A coming apart…
Of the soldering sinews of life
In the snap of bone
And tear of ligament,
The sudden rush of darkness
Invading my eyes
In an orthopaedic oblivion,
 Overtakes the vision
As I drop down by the wayside
Nursing the twisted tendon of memory.

Setu, April 2019