Poetry: Antara Mukherjee

Antara Mukherjee

Seclusion

Privacy is a compromised getaway.  

Here, a tree falls; there, a dark tunnel;

roots of unpruned creepers and

shadeless pavements test my patience.

Mosses and lichens encircle you, mostly.

You deny me light on conditions.

Excuses, like windy barriers, 

deftly dump me on to a secluded path.

I see Privacy amidst natural cosmetics.

And realise, it will be a while 

before you learn to value 

A valley of flowers.

***

Dagger

Dragging through your anxious mind

I met a silhouette of you.

Aphasia alienates us; 

the make-shift bridge of despair holds you tight.

Worms wriggle in the grey cells

where once sunshine reigned.

You emigrate me from our mindscape.

In your anguished laboratory 

I test my patience. 

Exchanges, baked in the irritated flame, 

dissolve in failed experiments.

In an empty Beaker, I look for emotions

to store.

The silence between your words

rams into me

like a dagger.

***

Vengeance

Scissoring out stimulation,

through the alleys of deceit,

has been your forte.

Masterstrokes of mock appreciations

fall like curtain 

of lies.                                                 

                                                            

           Shredded sickness,

           carefully punctuated with

           therapeutic interferences,

           fizzle out as fire 

 in the rain.

           Whirlwind conversations 

 had sought for a green pasture,

           where imagination,

           gazed at anxious borders, roused

           pity and guilt.

           After a while,

           through the veil of a dawn,

the yellowish-orange sun, exposed 

your vanishing ink.

          Fooled, I reflect 

          on our vulnerable correspondences

          and patiently wait for my turn 

          to smash back the tennis racket on 

your tennis elbow.

***

Bio Note: Antara Mukherjee

An Editor of 3 books and a Member of Review Boards of International Journals, Dr Antara Mukherjee is a part of West Bengal Educational Service, Govt of West Bengal. She is presently teaching at the Dept. of English, Durgapur Govt College, WB. After several National and International publications and presentations in the last two decades, she is currently engaged in exploring Heritages in WB along with pursuing the creative aspects of her being.

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Setu, June 2023