The sentinel lights watch her shadow~ lonesome, plaintive,

swaying in the night breeze,

looking at the city spread out like her foldable hand fan of silk and bamboo ~a travel souvenir.

The eyes wear the look of an abandoned home,

tired, sad and sleepless, hoarding memories.

A dreamcatcher is only a myth.

Is she the ‘melancholy woman’ ..her gloom hung for years in oil on canvas ?

Night is the colour of jacaranda blooms she loves to drape,

silence combs the air that quivers through her fingers as she sips the loneliness,

tiny sound ripples floating away from her

the day’s buzz melting,

decibels that spell her name; slowly dying

till she turns to a dwelling where no sound returns.

Time shrinks to a dot in her palm,

the blue of the night rushes through the veins

to drown itself in her throat.

Ashen lips.

Smothered kisses.

Froth of misplaced trust.

They write down a term she had never cared to learn.

Asphyxia.

…

Mallika Bhaumik has a Master’s degree in English literature from the University of Calcutta. Her works have been featured in many reputed mags like Grey SparrowJournal, Mad Swirl, Cafe Dissensus, Oddball Magazine, Shot glass Journal, Kitaab, In parentheses, Stag Hill journal, Harbringer Asylum,Madras Courier,The Alipore Post to name a few. She is the author of two poetry books. Her first book,’Echoes’by Authorspress, New Delhi, has won the Reuel International award for the best debut book,2018. Her second book ‘How not to remember’ has been published by Hawakal Prokashona, Kolkata (2019). She is also a nominee for the Pushcart Prize for poetry, 2019. Her poems are included in the Post Graduate  syllabus of BBKM University, Dhanbad, 2020. She lives and writes from Kolkata, India.

*‘melancholy woman’~ a painting by Pablo Picasso