वक्त ने फिर से करवट बदला
और फिर से जाने-से कुछ चेहरे बदले
रिश्तों के सिमटते दायरें आज फिर
कुछ नए सिरों से खुलने लगे
दिल के बंद दरवाजों पर
जाने कैसी दस्तकें हुई
और फिर से वही कश्मकश का आलम है
जाने इस मोड़ पे क्या रखा है !
गुजरते लम्हों की तादाद में
बिखरी उम्मीदें कितनी शामिल थीं...
वो बिखरा बसेरा कैसे समेटूँ
जिसका तिनका तिनका तूफानों ने उड़ाया ...
ज़र्रा जर्रा खाक में मिलाया
पर तबाही के बाद मी फिर एक बार
खाक से उठने की ज़िद... और उलझनों के
नए सिलसिलें! फिर से
कुछ इस तरह उलझे है सवाल और जवाब
के कहना मुश्किल है क्या है क्या
वजूद ढूँढते हुए आखिर
आखरी राह मी पार कर गए ...
मुकम्मल जहां की खोज में
फिर फ़ना हुए

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I held a storm at an arm's length
Knowing well...
it couldn't be held back for long
Yet the temptation to be otter- like
And wish a blow over....head buried
In sands of illusion!
The brewing was ominous
And I so craved for calm
But that tornado of sheer rage
I knew would erupt
While I tenaciously clung to
A semblance of peace...
Maybe I should relinquish
The rigid control
And let the tumult within unleash
West winds of fierce destruction without
Emit Banshee howls of soul agony
At the unfairness of it all...
Throw down the gauntlet in the face of Life
Bring it on...and I will survive!
I'm ready to grapple with and take head-on
The storm I have been holding off for so long...
- Madhumita Purkayastha

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Stark barren noontime
Deserted roads
And a place to go
Where I don't want to
Because
I won't meet you my friend
You won't be there to greet me
With that half smile
To call my name...ever again
A tight fist of pain knocks breath
Chokes tears...
A collage of flirting memories
Stream in relentless reels
Behind closed eyes.
And there you are framed
Amid flowers and incense
As if you had nothing left to do
As if your tasks ended
You could just let go and sleep
Forever...
Unanswered questions plague
Those you have left behind
Couldn't you have called up once?
Ir at least bid adieu
To say...goodbye
Until...in some world eons later
We meet again...

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Azure skies... spring cotton clouds
Festive yellow sparkling all around
Calm visages of the Goddess Saraswati
Clad in pristine white... poised on her swan
Music, merriment and the mounting tension
On the threshold of a life- changing moment
Frissions of fear and nervous joy
Mingled emotions churning within
The twelve two--a lifetime ago
Treasured bond signed and sealed
An oath of trust more than a legal bind
That auspicious day of spring
That glittering star- studded night...

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Inscribed
In each widening circle
Of an added ring of experience
Widening circumference
Of the trunk of life's tree
Etched ridges of suffering
Contortions of pain roughening
Dark brown bark...tough, stubborn
Yet peeling and raw in places
Of unguarded vulnerability
Branches....arms teaching out
Towards light and life
Seeking, relentless, tensile...
Bending backward to survive!
And the playful breezy leaves
Swaying in a merry waltz
Given the slightest wind- nudge
Irrepressible joi de vivré
Of self sustaining synergy
Nourishing green sun tango
Enthusing a million cells...
Come autumn, life's tree is ablaze
With hues of russet gold
A-flurry in the last rush of life
Before the grey cold sets in
Bleak winter-snow...freezing white
Bare barren branches and cold hard trunk
Waiting...
Clenched, tight roots clutching
Rock hard, unyielding soil
Waiting...
For the Spring-turn
For the new sun
To live and die again...

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The quill shirks--coward that it is--
From penning lines in heartblood
December end freezes over
Gut- wrenching memories
Of loss...life- changing
Gone... the roof secure
Gone...the ground beneath
Turn of the millenium
And " a century's dark corpse"
Lying bleak and bare...
Every year-end now
Dawns in trepidation
I walk in fire through ice
Reliving the agony of losing you
Too soon...what ifs haunting me
And the never- ending regret
The season once loved ..a phantasma
Of funeral pyre consuming
Your beloved form...your footfalls
Returning from morning walk
The mixed fragrance of cologne and tobacco
My childhood "safe home" smell
Baba ..I let 30th go by
My coward quill quivering, reluctant
Willing me not to remember
And etch out in heartblood
What has never been put to rest
The staunched flow, throbbing within
Simmering unrest....never to be laid in peace
Too deep a cut for time to ever heal ...

-

The mystic magic of
Slow transfusions of light
Touching the deep ink
Of sleep-still night
Dispersing
Dregs of last dream memories
Fragments of stubborn hope or despair
Tendrils of dawn light
Curling around... coaxing
Teasing tense bunched-up fear
To ease up and dissolve
Relent and yield
To the life-shots of red gold hue
To the miracle of yet another day!

-

A lingering fragrance
Musked and wafted around me
The entire day
Your presence...tugged at my heartstrings
The day passed in a blur of
Work, work and more work
Yet your face etched clear in every cell of my being
I was dreading going home....facing the evening
Memories of our tea times together
Gone forever...
I knew but kept pushing back
the thought that it was your birthday
Without you...
I bought your white and yellow flowers
Your favourite " night queens"...
pristine, fragrant, divine...essence of you
I got your craved for sweets
( I broke the rule only this day)
And laid them out like you were there
To celebrate with...
As if your smile would light up
My heart as it used to...
Times when you were with me

-

Deep within
Coiled, tight, stubborn
A relentless core...insurgent
Unfurls...occasionally
Shooting furious sparks
Of unrest and dissatisfaction
Perhaps it's time to
Unleash the power within
Invoke the million goddesses...
Not wait for gifted armaments
And a condescending grant
Of valour or limited freedom
Only to wrap up and box in
The belligerent spiralling vortex
of kinetic force..spinning out of reach or leash!
Returned to tame domesticity
Until another unmanageable crisis!
An eternity of waiting has passed
In tremulous hope...but now
It's time now to evoke
The irrepressible
Unputdiwnable, unstoppable you
To release what was held so far
In darkness, submission and fear
To awaken
The luminous incandescent power within
The goddesses....in you and you!!

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Afire...ablaze...roaring
This September descended like
A meteor shower...a conflagration
Of sultry days and pent-up nights
Only it never rained!
Not a drop to soothe parched summer grass
Singed, curled up yellowed leaves
The green gone too soon
No sparkling morn-dew
No gentle autumn breeze
No cool Fall...this September!
Blinding desert sun...orange glaring moon
Cracked earth and dried up rivers
Limbs of sprawling, expanding sand
Strange, seething September
Scorching torching all that's alive
As we yearn for the weather- turn...

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