Makiwane Road

on the road to makiwane
grows thoughts
many upheavals of
dreams
in larceny
quick and sharp incisions
each bereaving the other
a country rode to democracy
once
nights swept over this road
in disharmony of conjugal skies
wild grass in abandon
seeks a river
a white morning
seems at time
standing at its edge

Acrylic on Canvas by Amitabh Mitra

Gwalior Again

a river
cajoled clouds and
sinewy banks
creep in cohort
crowds
gwalior
grows
the old mussalman graveyard
in dormant belief
catches impervious thoughts
measuring the road to it
next to the durgah
would be hearing the tar
melt in summer
crackles
of a wheezy chest
an old man sprinkled water
from a leather hide bag
not so far away
under a sky hemmed in
zari and black threads
resplendent in regal
red
dawns
didn’t stretch long
birds swept
in a chardonnay
of forgotten
fragrance


Acrylic on Canvas by Amitabh Mitra

Ganga

we live in sheer darkness
in satin skin callings since you all left
then
on a sudden day
i was left in the long hollow
not knowing
in a resilience
screaming as ever in sleep
driving
sitting on a sky
searching for you all
downup
tangible threads of a rusted iron
keeps on clanging
on a tympanum
it lost sorting long
back
they are here
they are here
incomprehensible
the ganga curls
in my dreams


Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra

Xoliswa

forestblack
nightscapes in
luminous rivers
eyes
stretched
peacock skies
a horizon burnt

Acrylic on Paper by Amitabh Mitra