Inside Ashes

After every finished poem,
ashes smile.
My numbed limbs find shelter
in fugitive lyrics, inside
ashes.
I want to jump out to the
world, where stages have been
set up to accommodate words;
where flowers and chairs have been
arranged to welcome lyrics.
I search new syllables inside
flowers; — in vain.
I find new sense of
burnt out lines
drowned in ashes.

They come up like
fresh twilight
in a summer evening.
I realize ashes have a
different warmth,
full of love and the
magical depth
of twilight.

Resuscitated, I feel like
rising from the ashes.

These Lines Are Bitter

Do not sail your tongue
over these lines.
These lines are bitter.
They contain black smoke from
every battlefield schemed by us.
They have deep wounds, visible
and invisible.
From every wound visible,
blood drips. Do not sail
your tongue in blood.
It’s thick
and bitter.
Here, flowers have
refused to bloom.
Agonies only carry
these lines, aptly.

Do not touch these
with your decorated eyes.
These are full of tear gas

and failed promises.

Obscure Book

You are a chair.
I’m all dust on the soil.
You’re a designation.
I’m the obscure book looking
from the corner of a
tinned rack.
You’re a crowd.
I’m the lonely bush
by the side of the road.
You’re a festival.

I’m still searching the
festive light.

Unscripted

Here you come, slowly
like long-awaited thoughts,
yet to bloom in a poem.

I’ve seen you already, —
like clouds see the river, —
from a secret 3rd floor window.

I’ve seen you long ago,
like the sudden childhood flower,
yet to acquire a name.

I’m also searching the name of
the river and the unscripted poem.
in my secret chamber

But I’m sure they will
forever
remain untitled.

Aneek Chatterjee is from Kolkata, India. He has published more than five hundred poems in reputed literary magazines and poetry anthologies. He authored and edited 16 books including five poetry collections. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Dr. Chatterjee received the Alfredo Pasilono Memorial International Literary Award. He was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia, USA, and a recipient of the ICCR Chair (Govt. of India) to teach abroad.