Special Edition: Laksmisree Banerjee

Laksmisree Banerjee

1. GREY YEARNING

Out of the box the universe lives with me

A reality more mesmerizing

than a dream- sparkle---

Encased in my glassy shell

an intangibility hard to trespass

I see soaring innocence

Yearning hands of prayer

Upward motions of sacredness and desire

Children seeking eternity

With peals of laughter

Fragrant whorls of incense

Moving upwards to touch

The azure bending to kiss---

Dry twigs have undergone

Transcreation of souls

Now nascent and pure in

The play of outstretched baby hands of jubilation

Soon they will break the boundaries

When limitless space will bring harvests of corn

Dense foliage will spread velvet verdure

The rejoicing children of multihues will giggle

The walls and fences will fall apart

And the land, sky and sea converse in untarnished mirth----

I know for sure the rains will come soon

The drenched empyrean will mingle with the children

In a new age of noble youthfulness

And I will break open my glass cage

To ballet with the mellow sun-soaked showers

To let my heart sing till infinity

Songs of the good earth

And let baby leaves and grass grow in abundance---

***

2. HOPE

we live in huts and hovels

across that untouchable horizon

fences are redundant with

windy gusts of remorse

awaiting spring

the pathways to our cubby holes

have clusters of half-axed trees

forming a community of minimalism

bare landscapes revel in bonhomie

shrubs and bristles along highways

hug, stretch and hanker for company

for that greenery of kind socialism

for that foliage of untarnished love

the parched earth wails with moist tenderness

as brittle twigs lie with still to be born babies

the cloudless skies celebrate life in death

with the arrival of watery whirlwinds

a patient watch proclaims sudden silence

of the mortuary wrapped in brown about to rise

a coffin cloth of cruelty is a sign of

plundering as the grey sky relents

that jaundiced orb in the sky proclaims

rejuvenation with a fast approaching festival

Of awakening....

***

3. BEAUTY OF TRUTH

This day benediction is a far cry

scrambles through light and shade

The skeletal limbs outcry

In tired movements

Stretched beyond

The invisible horizon

Blazing with love and hate----

Here is a slivered world

Days like nights of gold and silver

Sun masquerading half- nude

As the amorous moon

Scrawls across in perfidy

With aridity sucking out life

In shrivelled fog of dusty skies----

The barricades harsh still

Assert their supremacy

Though hills and greens

Herald with thrills from afar

The egg in the sky drips

With hope of better days

Echoing still the beauty of truth---

Oval pallid may perhaps turn vermillion

As dreams of love swim to soothe zillions!!

***

Bio: Laksmisree Banerjee is a Multiple-Award winning Poet, University Professor of English and Cultural Studies, International Scholar and a Vocalist. Widely published and anthologized she has Twelve Books of Poetry and several research cum academic publications. She believes in the potency of her Pen and Voice for Socio-Cultural Transformations.

---

Setu, May 2025