Poetry Drawer: In the Storm: Revolt: Baffled: Playhouse by Aneek Chatterjee

In the Storm

When the storms came,
father tied a rope through the whole
of each iron frame, supposed to hold
glass panes of the windows tight.
Latches of the window frames were long
broken, like our families, known and unknown.
There were glasses everywhere,
between you and me,
transparent, yet invisible;
we can see, but we’re unable to.

Ropes were ephemeral, unlike the storms.
They were blown away quickly.
And the glass panes were shivering in fear,
like me and father, everyone knew iron frame.

In the storm, I failed to realize
which was more vulnerable; —
glass or the iron frame.

Revolt

On a dangerous turn of the mountain,
I saw someone trying to cut winds
through his hands.

I felt shaky, yet curious.
And tried to replicate.
But my hands revolted.

Informed, they were tired
with socially warm
handshakes.

Baffled

Initial interactions whispered,
you were a poem without
punctuation.

Finally discovered
myriad notes of interrogation,
without any comma.

I felt like a semicolon,
unable to guess, whether
I should move a full stop.

Playhouse

We have created this playhouse
& named it undecipherable.
Here, our daily sojourn runs smooth as if
on rail tracks; where our sons and daughters
take a ride, which we tend to think
as merry ride.
When the train gets a jolt, we try to
change the track, not the coach.
In this coach, several games are played,
some tough, some easy. In this coach,
we stage multiple dramas, some straight,
some imagined, some undecipherable.

We have created this playhouse, to remain
happy, or to believe happy, satiated.
This playhouse devours us, until we leave …
& we do not know the ultimate
fate of our coach, which for some years
remained our playhouse

Aneek Chatterjee is from Kolkata, India. He has been published in poetry magazines and anthologies across the globe. He authored 16 books including four poetry collections, namely, “Seaside Myopia” (Cyberwit, 2018); “Unborn Poems and Yellow Prison” (Cyberwit, 2019); “Of Ashes and Persiflage” (Hawakal, 2020) and “Archive Avenue” (Cyberwit, 2022). 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. 

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