Basudhara Roy (Towards Visibility)

Basudhara Roy

IN ABSENTIA

You are both here and not

in the way the story is here and not

and a possibility sleeps supine between us

contented that between luck and fate

its awakening never came.

In better seasons

there would have been things to say

but you never trusted words enough

and I never could bring the knife to desire

or proof to intention to convince you

that not all words had claws to scar 

or pins to prick faith unawares.

Had you permitted letters

you would have affirmed

they were at best caresses in the breeze

at worst pencil shavings over your desk

fluttering into defeat.

***

THESE DAYS I THINK LAVENDER

It could be the gold of the heat

that so flames all it touches 

that the eye needs some respite

from this orgy of light.

It could be the distant hill

that under a definite slant of the sun

turns from green to slate to blue, 

its head tucked in nimbus peace.

It could also be the chiffon

of your dream draping my limbs,

the confidences between fabric and skin

an enigma I wouldn't tear apart.

Blossoms line these eyelids

from all of yesterdays

and the grass is, for once, willing

to hold us between earth and sky.

I think lavender these days,

steadfastly holding to purple 

even as it loses its heart to white -- 

tomorrow's dream for each bereft tonight.

***

Basudhara Roy teaches English at Karim City College affiliated to Kolhan University, Chaibasa. Drawn to themes of gender and ecology, her four published books include a monograph and three poetry collections, the latest being Inhabiting. She loves, rebels, writes and reviews from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India.

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Setu, September 2023 :: Towards Visibility