Kolkata, India
Find me
Find me on your teacup
awaiting your eager lips
Find me on your glasses
to look at the world through my eyes
Find me on your wheel
to get your firm clasp
Find me on your rear-view mirror
guiding you on the road
Find me on the clouds
trailing on the distant horizon
Find me on the wind
that plays on your skin
when you bring down the glass
to exhale your cigarette puffs
Find me on the sweat that trickles down your nape
when you return exhausted from a day’s work
Find me in the hot coffee
you drink to relax and think
of a day spent well
only if it was with me!
Odour
Your odour remains after you and troubles me
as it titillates my senses
when suddenly it impersonates on me
in a crowded road
My eyes begin a hasty search
scanning those around me
passing hurriedly in their daily fare
The smell stays on and manoeuvres my path
as it holds my hand down the tricky memory lane
to places I have long left
to shadows I have long cleft
as I embraced a split life
one my own deep dark world
the other all joyful and buoyant
Some time they play games
changing roles now and then
leaving me agape and surprised
I wonder what'll happen
the day the two merge
can the day and night come together?
Raining Words
Your words rained on me
penetrated through the pores
flowed with my blood
making its way to my heart
Like in an earthen pot
it's heat and anger
transformed
into cool beads of pearl
Pearls of verses stringed in beauty…
Parched earth cracked under the sun
gets wet in the spatters
but the cracks stand out
as scars that take time to heal
Only a deluge can soften the hardened soil
make it mushy and soft
that beds green grasses and flowers
that unite and rejuvenate
transform anger to love
Rains wash, rains purify
rains create life
Your words rained on me
a poet was born!
Bio Note: Madhu Sriwastav is an academic based in Kolkata. She is also a creative writer, writing poems as they come to her, translating, as an enjoyable exercise and reviewing when she feels like. She has been widely published in national and international journals and magazines, both print and online. Her debut book of poems Trips Climbs Circles has received rave reviews. She received the prestigious Panorama International Special Jury Award 2022. She is an Executive Committee Member of Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library Kolkata, curating poetry events regularly.
