At the Antique Shop

A tiger's mask beside brassy chalice,
Copper cups, wooden buckets,
Granny-pots staring at a dancing maiden
on red saree with doll-eyes.
Forest in a vase
Wooden carved door,
Candle stand with two golden heads
A silver Shisha stand
Leather laces, boxes, bags
A museum of last decades.
Her eyes blinked thrice like shutter,
She picked her prayer instrument:
A golden candle stand with two heads
and a pale silver foot-
"How much?" with a choir singer's voice
"350 taka, antique-won't get it"
The seller announced his point.
("Worship and candle industry
Go hand in hand even today?")
She muttered silence.
Wrinkles on her face
Run like tiny rivers
Surety of her eyes
Brazen with cataract
"I used to come here
With Mrs. Kabir"
Moments of life-left-back,
sophisticated roaming
tinged her flight of fancy.
She paid the bill
Walked off the doorstep
While pills she got
From the drug-store
Prepared with a lascivious gaze
For midnight's urgency.

Shomir Theo is senior lecturer, Department of English, Eastern University .