Two Poems

    By Shamayita Sen

    What I’ll miss most about home as I leave Kolkata this spring:

    A pair of starlings
    squat on a leafy branch of
    the Kadam tree opposite our verandah.
    A furry friend jumps off our terrace
    and squirrels past my arms, placid against
    balcony railings. Sometimes a couple red-hooded peckers
    or green pigeons join their baithak. A crow burrows
    leaves and bones in the hollow of our
    bedroom skylight. I run to inform Maa
    about the trespassing, almost forgetful that
    these are only reminders of the lone Ashok tree
    waiting at the entrance of our gully in
    North Delhi, posed as a landmark
    for delivery guys and acquaintances
    on their
    quest to
    locate
    my nest.

    Senryu / micro poems

    bird song ~
    a dash of hope in
    my empty heart

    first rain,
    trembling green…
    new love blossoms

    beyond the borders, my homeland

    winter rain…
    the geometry of grief
    on your sleeping face

    school after long—
    a bunch of flowers
    for her teacher

    Shamayita Sen is a Delhi based poet, lecturer and PhD research scholar (Department of English, University of Delhi). She is the author of for the hope of spring: hybrid poems, and editor of Collegiality and Other Ballads: feminist poems by male and non-binary allies. Her poems have appeared in various avenues including Ambidextrous Bloodhound Press, Muse Pie Press, Madras Courier, Outlook India, Muse India, Setu, The Red River Book of Poetry of dissent: WITNESS.

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