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.