Poetry by Manu Dash
A Topiary of Time
You thought Time
would play thumri
while in the outskirts of desire
someone hums a tune in silence.
Have you ever thought
why you wear the shirt
the way you always do
tucked inside the pants?
What lyric the moon composes tonight
beneath the placid calm waters
surrounded by shapeless shadows?
Time chooses to appear
as the topiary
across the dark horizon of a dream.
Grief
A loner with collapsible dreams;
no one is ready to walk along with you.
The silent prayers follow
to keep you at bay.
Goodbye is not a solution
when it occupies the backseat of anxieties.
Like a flamingo you appear
on the brackish lake of silence,
and I keep on watching
stars of hope twinkling in the periphery of darkness.
It hibernates like a dry faded petal
between the pages of an ancient book
or old and yellowed butter in the fridge.
I look for it to change the address
of an aadhar card I never had.
Poet, editor, translator, publisher and curator of the annual Odisha Art & Literature Festival, Manu Dash has published 30 books in Odia and English.
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