Seasons: Three poems by Anuradha Vijayakrishnan
Photo: Karan Madhok
‘One imagines the other in the empty place at the table, walking / through a blazing sunlit door / or leaving silently, melting into absence.’
Seasons
Thulavarsham. This time of the year. Damp smell
between pages of books, fungus and velvet moss
on every rock. Lightning rivers.
Thulavarsham. Seasons demand stories, songs. Flood waters
climb hills, take possession of us. We concede
sinking deep into dimpled mud, believing in rebirth.
Thulavarsham. Graffiti on the wall that will wash
away soon.
*
The other
Two people meet and become the other
to each other.
One thinks of the other when rain peacock dances
on fallow skies, when a strange bird
flashes by, or someone laughs unseen. When a bell
rings out suddenly
or waves repeat
what they said
in wise fading voices.
One imagines the other in the empty place at the table, walking
through a blazing sunlit door
or leaving silently, melting into absence.
Or watching from the window at midnight
like a ghost.
They are twice blessed for they have each other. Like light has
shadow and death has life.
How neem and banyan grow into each other, in forests far apart.
How desert follows sea. Each the other’s sanctuary.
*
Chandrakaaran Maanga
We have misplaced these fibrous yellow green
names
Stringy mess in the mouth, palm sized mango
worlds
sliding wholesome over tongue. One squeeze – that’s all
it took
to free juice, ease rough flesh into palms. Crushed
coarse
with fine wild chillies, mashed into hot rice
squished
into sour curd, sloshed gleefully down the throat while
summer
danced around jewelled patches of backyard
shade
slender green snakes dozed mildly on chipped
windowsills
someone turned on the radio to drown
an argument
maybe these are memory’s whimsical
tricks. Maybe
all this never was. As those gentle snakes
still sleeping
or that song ringing out down the road
***
Anuradha Vijayakrishnan is an Indian writer living in UAE. Her work has appeared in Kenyon Review, Magma, Everyday Poets, CVV2, The Lake and The Madras Courier, and was recently featured in the Yearbook of Indian poetry in English (2020). You can find her on Twitter: @AVijayakrish.
