Poems by Ritamvara Bhattacharya

The Moment

Against the burnished sun.

our fingers entwined

coffins in each other.

 

You look back once

walk a distance

search me through-

what is it that keeps you?

 

Cold long shadow of the candle flickers against the wall. 

Wish! Our promises had a word.

what if –

It was just a moment.

 

 

He said, ‘Good night.’ 

 

 

They sit together on the porch

Her hands resting on her lap.

He smokes.

A feral wind runs from nowhere to nowhere

The palm tree hushes –

If inaudibility was a word

she must have entreated him for his last wish.

 

Rain as parenthesis 

 

 

Happy dreams adorn this path

This path, under the blooms of red Krishnachura flowers

flowers carefully pinned by us, in shirt pocket and hair as in pairs

Pairing as lovers we walked like sun dwelling in clouds

Clouds black in colour suddenly rumbled like our hearts at the western sky

Skiing through fallen leaves we waded as secrets held in ears

Ears tingled a bit, your soft caress and a softer bite

Biting even harder this time the rain as parenthesis slipped through you and me

You and me as separate umbrellas walked down the roadside

Sides of Road eroded faster with that years rain

Rain that had washed us of us, flooded the city and that path

Pathless the lovers walk across

across the gaps between clouds but love –

Love is like moon waxes and wans

Wan it may, but can it be chained by the fear of loss? 

 

 

Ritamvara Bhattacharya writes from a darling’s heart, Darjeeling. She believes in what Sylvia Plath said, “And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” She writes for the pleasure of it. She writes for the ‘I am’ in her heart, a voice that creates ripples and sensation.