J is for ... Janani Janmabhumishcha swargadapi gariyasi* ...

 

In memoriam: Arundhati Maitra (18.09.1938-12.04.2020)

You’re twined with lissome rains, with moist monsoons,

the fragrance of mangoes flaring in the wind

like your saree on the clothesline. Afternoons

cloudy grey, a slow tapping of imagined

heels on the stairs coming up to the second

floor, unfolding hours a palm leaf, a croton

splash of time, marble-veined, end without an end.

A moth shaped dark but the wings closed, not open.

Between your staircase and the terminal

are many years of yellow cabs and miles

of heartache, thumbing through material,

keeping equidistant from tears and smiles,

but now the ground’s shifted, changed its axis.

I didn’t imagine it would feel like this.

*'Mother and motherland are better than even Heaven.' 

A-Z Challenge 2021