Vignettes of a South African Township called Mdantsane

Saturday, February 27, 2010

When you wrote



when you wrote with your nose on my arrogance
in close knit whispers of a dark
you said this is just another end
of all those rendezvous on skinstreets
our lips a breath of untoward moments
a tongue curtailing the history of mankind
and you and me
unafraid of galaxies
persisting in us
but today
i won’t see you anymore
nor your eyes where I once traveled
in the beginning of another time
nor your smile
of the victor and vanquished in
insane memories
and your saree that draped them always
today
not far from us are the deserts of innocence
where camels ran the density of moon
and we had once grown there
collateral of an even wilder sky
today
say again
i haven’t lived beyond an ardor
of that lost white flower in your hair
of summers that bled in silence
of the ruby river that woke us up each night
and your smell I have now learned to disbelieve
a death I had always lived
whenever a sparrow flew away
whenever another day arrived.

Poem and Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra









Monday, February 22, 2010

Road to Keiskammahoek


a pink sky suddenly
asked the blue keiskammahoek
mountain
reasons for living
and lasting
so long
a whiff of fern
air exploded in stranger
vicinity
somebody laughed
children
chased a dipping sun

Poem and Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra

Friday, February 5, 2010

Keiskammahoek





geese scream
a keiskammahoek sky falls apart
mountains go adrift
sun enters a serenity
meditates the following
day.

Poem and Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra