I just wish to see your face tonight
Watch you glow when you brush your lush curls
In your bath towel
Wish to drown in the cadence of your voice
As you dig into your guitar
And dance like we are seventeen
I just wish to melt in your private moments
Steal a piece of your heartache
And write a song about it
Featured Artwork: IN THE LILAC HAT by Lana Khavronenko
My pet butterfly pooped on my collarbone in the color of hollow rainbow while I was underwater dreaming about finding a puppy in ten thousand different trashcans that smelled like marshmallow-unicorn frappuccino. And I can’t remember what the fuck I was smoking.
Featured Artwork: FIFTH ELEMENT, 2015 by Micheal Cheval
OK, so this one is a bit cringey. It’s such an immature, gooey mess, that I never thought of publishing it…ever. I wrote this on a lazy, winter afternoon back in 2012 during my film school in Prague, when I met an extremely beautiful person, inside and outside, and had a brief but endearing friendship.
Years passed by. My writing changed, hopefully for betterment. This poem stayed buried in the cold dampness of my old notebook. However, as life would have it, I would meet her again, this time in early 2018 and things seemed to be much more resolute, much more concrete this time around. Since then I have written quite a lot for her and she loves them all.
Last year on Valentine’s Day I was with her and we watched LOVING VINCENT (biopic of our favorite artist) and then went on to dance the night away in our favorite night club in Prague. This year however I could not be in Prague due to some professional commitments. So I sent her a bouquet of rose and this long lost, childish poem that I wrote for her back in 2012. She was elated.
I feel the poem has gained some importance, at least in our tiny little universe. Hence I am sharing it on this platform, warts and all. If it makes you cringe, laugh or roll your eyes, I would understand 🙂
Happy Valentine’s Day, world.
The way you slept off on my shoulder
On the bus ride to Neverland,
The clouds came by to look at you,
The sun came by to kiss your hand.
You made me lose my senses that day,
You made me feel the love that night,
You made me yours forever and ever,
And we made love till the morning light.
We didn’t have much money back then,
We didn’t care for the worldly things.
With wind in our hair we rode the lightning,
We were the fairytale kings and queens.
We played dice with the devil,
We proved the fortune-tellers wrong,
We took a vow by the bonfire
To be together for everlong.
So here I send you my heart and soul
Serenading this little love song
Come let me love you by the rainbow
For today, tonight and tomorrows to come.
We haven’t died till this day –
And yet a few scenes are born:
Moheen’s horses graze the pasture in autumn moon;
Like stone-age horses –
They still graze the ugly dynamo of Earth
For the greed of grass.
A crowded night-air brings the smell of a stable;
Wailings of melancholy grass gently fall from steel machines.
Teacups, like sleepy kittens in a hazy grip of a wounded dog,
Tremble away in mist
Towards the roadside motel.
The paraffin lamp in the stable
Goes out with an anxious whiff of time
Touching the gleaming moonlight
In the neolithic silence of the horses.
Original poem: GHORA by Jibonanondo Das
[ This is an original English translation of my favorite Bengali poem GHORA (Horse) by my all time favorite poet Jibonanondo Das. ]
Featured Artwork: FIVE HORSES, 1970 by M.F. Husain
Many moons ago
On my way to faraway lands
In search of a few rose-tinted dreams
I walked the streets of Prague
When, on a fateful night
In a corner of this medieval town
On an old ornate mirror
I saw her face
Time stopped
A storm brewed inside me
And then all of a sudden
Before I knew it
She was gone like a mirage
Since then
I have been waiting
In a drunken daze
In front of that mirror
Come rain, come shine
Just for a chance
A second chance
To catch a glimpse of
Her elfin face
Since then
I faded to oblivion
I died many deaths
But tonight is a blue moon
For tonight, out of nowhere
A whiff of perfume
Woke me from my stupor
And I saw her
Looking back at me
My eyes fell off from my face
She laughed at my clumsy
Her voice melted like butter
And as she brushed her brown locks
Off her face
She offered me her hand,
‘My name is Tereza,
What’s yours?’
Featured Artwork: REVEAL by Carole Choucair Oueijan (Mosaic artwork)
Let us take a walk to the memory lanes
On this misty morning of your birthday
Let us find an open air theater
We’ll watch our lives unfold like a play
Coen Brothers on a cold night’s warmth
Tiny strolls on the soft railway track
Wet kisses in the yellow-orange fall
Viennese coffee by the frosty riverbank
As the world turns to a gladiator field
Only lovers left behind to fight for youth
From reigns to ruins and kingdoms to dust
Only lovers remain to seek the truth
And its truth that I’m seeking, not lies or shame
No deceit or dalliance, no faults to blame
The depths of truth hold mysteries and magic
That legends and lore can only feign
So tell me Eurydice, do you hear my murmur?
Look over your shoulder, you’ll find me behind
I am Orpheus, the prophet, the father of songs
Invading Underworld to reclaim my wife
Our love is eternal… it’s older than time
We are birds of heaven…unchained and undone
We were born to soar on wings of freedom
To the cotton candy clouds around the setting sun
Featured Artwork: COTTON CANDY CLOUDS, 2006 by Will Cotton
Last night I met you in a dream
We were making love
Riding on a sick bass line
Your face was so close
I could count your eyelashes
And all I could think was
How beautiful you were
Right then
You opened your eyes
And I saw death
Staring at me
With a hideous wrath of vengeance
They say
In the wild
It’s the male who is the strongest
But on a lover’s bed
The male is just a pawn
To be sacrificed in a battlefield
Featured Artwork: JUDITH SLAYING HOLOFERNES, c. 1620 by Artemisia Gentileschi
