[HOME] [ISSUE] [ARCHIVES] [ABOUT] [GUIDELINES] [BLOG]  floodby Ishita Basu Mallikflood came by today, was looking for you wiped feet useless on the mat, hands trembling invited self to ek cup holey mondo hoy na settled by the dining table, discreet in bespoke silt shirt. debdaru leaves, listening, flinched flood didn't say kintu bola no bola ak-i byapar was left by you, was expelled, eyes drooping deep into the skull, fingers pruned, was left high and dry ministers visited affected areas, fish vaulted in trees flood's gentle hand had tousled the map flood understands about your mother, flood had a mother, too, once, meltmouth polyglot, damned if she did and dammed if she didn't, amar obosthya-ta bujhte parchhen; flood cannot count in single digits; flood's cracked serenade i didn't have the heart to interrupt flood watched flood fold into a raincoat of rain and trickle down the kitchen window. sheshbesh taake bollam na, how you've moved mountains and still feel that tidemark on your throat. Some lines and phrases in this poem are Romanised Bangla. For reference, the following translations have been provided by the poet.
ek cup holey mondo hoy na — I wouldn't mind a cup of tea Ishita Basu Mallik lives in India, takes care of her parents and tries to hang on to her day job. She can be reached at low tide or at ishita.ityadi at gmail.com Read Ishita's discussion of this poem over at the Roundtable! Photography: Grandmother by Seyyedeh Ghazaleh Ghazanfari. 
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