By Saima Afreen
We are the memory
of water,
the rain inside us
knows
it has to return
where it comes from
it tries to escape, rises and comes down
in drops
over graves, moss-laden
on the silent grass guarding the feet of obelisks
the early morning light trembles, stands
at the rectangular marble
marked with Henry Derozio’s name
a little stream sluices from the other two words
like the tiny graves of children
Inside Park Street Cemetery
the fresh-green trees, their leafy burdens
over glassy streets, empty
of wars, bugles, yuccas, soldiers, servants, epidemics.
The rain-soaked windows blur the thick grey smoke
rising from a stove somewhere
In Little Russell Street
but there’s no fire
despite that, the wood belongs to it.
It rains till the city disappears
in unmarked calendars, faces
blind windows, trapped breeze
the red of buildings, tiles, roofs
all disappear inside a dawn
that never saw its light.
The thick carpets inside dark museums
soak the blood and light of yesteryears
the ashen chandeliers,
a charcoal sky
underneath which statues and swords
sleep alike.
My face remembers what I looked like
before washing off its skin
with warm rain and filling the gaps
with flags that people in my time
wore as talismans
for the exorcism of rain,
the mad dance in blood.
Saima Afreen is an award winning poet, and the Deputy City Editor of The New Indian Express. A Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship (2019) in Creative Writing at the University of Kent, United Kingdom, her poetry have appeared in several Indian and international journals, including Indian Literature, HCE Review, Barely South Review, The Bellingham Review, The Roanoke Review, The Stillwater Review, The McNeese Review, The Nassau Review, The Oklahoma Review, Staghill Literary Journal, The Notre Dame Review, Honest Ulsterman, and Existere, among others. She received ‘Writer of the Year Award, 2016’ from Nassau Community College (the State University of New York). She has been part of several literary festivals and platforms such as Sahitya Akademi Poets’ Meet, Goa Arts and Literary Festival, TEDx VNR-VJIET, Prakriti Poetry Festival, Hyderabad Literary Festival, Betty June Silconas Poetry Festival, Helsinki Poetry Jam, Pulse Radio Glasgow, the University of Stirling, the University of Westminster, Waterstones Bookstore Canterbury, and the University of Kent.
Given below are her twitter link and poetry book link.
https://twitter.com/sfreen?lang=en
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