Monobina Nath: Figures of Thought: Collegiate Voices across Spaces

A Cup of Hot Coffee   

Oh Mellow!

Are you sleeping?

It's our coffee time,

To recall our warm time.

Didn't you remember 

The cups of-

Caramel macchiato, 

Cappuccino,

Espresso with sweet and 

Creamy whipped cream. 

I- who noted every sip, as days

We passed together and 

We sit; 

We rolled all the 

Yellow and pink sugar candies

Under our tongues, and

Drink and enjoy the last sip

In our mugs. 

Now, we grew up a lot,

Situation changed a lot.

Neither you nor I, sit beside. 

The catnap reminds us 

Like an alien alarm,

We all need a cup of hot coffee.

We are cold.

***

Honour in A Doll's House  

(Inspired by Henrik Isben's play "A Doll's House")

“But no man would sacrifice his 

honour for the one he loves."

Men are the gifts of 

God's miracle,

And women are sent

To serve them.

The world of make- believe 

Handicapped them, that

No honour has left to support

Their lives. They sacrifice and

Then sacrificed as their bones are sold,

As a mother and wife. 

We are human beings too

But no one wants

To educate us.

"Why? Didn't I talk like a doll- child?".

The answers aren't in 'men's bookshelves',

We have to educate 'ourselves'. 

We aren’t a doll- wife 

Of your household anymore,

Where,

"It is a thing hundreds of thousands 

of women have done".

***

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Author's Bio:  Monobina Nath is an English honours student in Brahmanada Keshab Chandra College, Kolkata, India. Her work has appeared in Chrysanthemum, Ode to a Poetess , Poetry Nation, StoryMirror, TechTouch Talk, Meghalaya Times and Indian Periodical. Her poems were also selected for the National Bilingual Poetry Competition in 2021.

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Setu, June 2021

Poetry: Monobina Nath

Monobina Nath

Mary Wollstonecraft 

A girl was born

Like a lemon

Tree on Primrose Street,

North of Spitalfields.

With her blazing eyes,

She fights for the women's rights.

Her life is not that simple one,

Patriarchy always did her shun.

Reason, virtue, knowledge

Already she learnt with courage.

When education and freedom,

Are the words of men's wisdom,

She broke up her feminist voice,

Where women are merely flowery toys.

On great philosophers, she opposed and laughed,

Her name is Mary Wollstonecraft.

***

The New Woman

Good daughters and good wives

The key duties that's women alive

In masculine society,

Where women acts of piety with anxiety.

They cut, they crumble, they die

Under the taboos of an evil eye.

Emotion, beauty, delicate sensibility

All they have, without financial security

As they sacrifice themselves

For 'ourselves'.

From infancy, saw mother with courtesy

To fulfil all her duties.

I too a woman,

Have my sin may be forgiven?

***

An Ignorant Child

You are grown- up,

Changed a lot,

Know to hide your pain

In the democratic world.

Ma, what is society?

It's a small house,

Is a multi- ethnic planet,

Where people lived together.

Ma, but why so many rules?

To protect, to survive,

Both sides, that can’t be

Understood from the common eyes.

Ma, why do I feel so pain,

Even I've done my homework so well.

Why they treated me differently?

Why am I forced to expel?

She gets dewy- eyed, and say,

“Beta... I also felt the same

disappointment, now you feel,

as an ignorant child”.

***

Bio: Monobina Nath is a poetess living in Kolkata, India. Her work has appeared in an anthology “Chrysanthemum”, Eve- poetry magazine, seven poems of collection in ‘Ode to a Poetess’ , Poetry Nation, Hello poetry, Allpoetry, StoryMirror, two poems in ‘Meghalaya Times’ and ‘Indian Periodical’ and got selected in National Bilingual Poetry Competition in 2021.

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Setu, May 2021