In the whale-belly of a dream I walk
clutching a key.
The nyctophobic keyhole recedes farther
from me, restlessly shape-shifting.

This unerring dark must be the mouth of light,
veiled till illusion’s lips are parted.
The sun to make your day must birth my night,
betrayal a secret tattoo on water’s nape.

The stars may be assassins for all we know,
the moon punctually carries her shawl of shadow,
and in the earth’s moist bosom now, the oak
is softly calming the cicada’s fear to sleep.

…

Basudhara Roy is a faculty of English at Karim City College affiliated to Kolhan University, Chaibasa. Her poetry is featured/upcoming in Lucy Writers’ Platform, Berfrois, The Helter Skelter Anthology, Café Dissensus, Yearbook of Indian English Poetry 2020-21, The Aleph Review, Mad in Asia, Teesta Review, EKL Review, The Poetry Society of India, Muse India, Setu and Triveni among others. Her recent (second) collection of poems is Stitching a Home (New Delhi: Red River, 2021). She loves, rebels, writes and reviews from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India.