Saturday 7 January 2017

WET WEATHER
by RK Biswas

And so it came to pass
that an itinerant cloud
having slipped from its perch
on its chosen path, descended
and entered my heart.
Clouds carry moisture, but
my heart is wet already,
and red from pumping blood.

At the ocean’s edge, 
dipping my feet into foam
I watch the day come and go
bearing gifts for humankind. The sea
does that too, like the faithful cur
that he is. Unfazed
by rejection and undaunted, returning
after every retreat,
until a kindly patch of sand
decides to keep
that odd bottle, plastic scrap,
lost slipper, a pair of pants. A hoard
of helpless things. Some from the drowned.
Those that got dragged away,
and never sought to be found,
forgotten, left behind, rejected, discards
for the sea to play catch with. Silly
beast. Sillier me,

for having caught a cloud. Who
does that? Now it’s a cough
in my throat. I can’t sing. And at times
my voice departs in a huff,
leaving an unuttered thought flustered
and breathless. Devastated.
Embarrassed. Catlike I
wish to spring onto a warm
and unsuspecting lap. Bring
up that cloud like a fur ball and
send it gamboling 
down the streets with the wind.
I want the rain to sing.
Not hide inside a cloud.

* * * * *


RK Biswas is a writer from India. Her novel "Culling Mynahs and Crows" was published by Lifi Publications, India. Her poetry and fiction have been published widely. She was first runner up in the 2016 DNA-OOP Short Fiction Contest, India. She won second prize in the India Currents Katha Literary Fiction Prize for her story ‘It Comes from Uranus” in June 2016. Her novel was listed as one of the 20 most popular books published in 2014 by The Readers’Club, Delhi. In 2012 she won first prize in the Anam Cara Writer's Retreat Short Story Contest. Her poem "Bones" was a Pushcart Nominee from Cha: An Asian Literary Journal in 2010. Her poem "Cleavage" was long listed in the Bridport Poetry Prize in 2006 and also was a finalist in the Aesthetica Contest in 2010. Her story Ahalya's Valhalla was among Story South's Notable stories of the net in 2007.


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