There is very little to enliven the evening
Except for a remote possibility
to light up the greying floor. 


With trembling hands, she takes
the waxen doll – the white body -- off the shelf
And steps into the bedroom.

The doll, 

with her usual niceties, suits the place.


She places it on the milk-white divan.
The yellowish lamp -- understated,
The unknown fragrance, the sculpted figurehead... 

all seem to forget the previous failures!
She touches the pinkish eyelids 

with her brown fingertips, and 

It appears to be shy to the whitish glory!

The finger goes downward... 

tender neck, measured pinnacles, 

a strip of lustrous brown hair covering the naked sin... the white lie…

smooth, submissive — all waxen!
Two smooth hands — illusive!
As if the sky is still alive and so are the wings!

 

The hand strikes her wrist
mechanically
against the white; it’s quite hard to pile up
the dirty proofs of a smashed doll...
the phantom of an empty desire!

She looks at herself through the mirror.
The yellowish lamp cannot smoothen
her not-so-feminine eyes!

But the light suits this contour!
She sees hundred butterflies
leaving her balcony
as the darkness descends!
She cleans up the railing
with her tough muscles nodding…the white relics…
And
She lights up the candles.


--------------------------------

Amrita Bhattacharyya is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English Studies and Research in Amity University, Kolkata. Her collections of poems written in Bengali include: Amra Sobai Palok Aki, Pyne, Ghatsiri ar Sreeghorer Golpo, Bhor Barchhe Shwet bamoner and O Asprishyo! O Aschorjo! Many of her poems in English have been published in many renowned literary journals and magazines e.g. Indian Literature published from Sahitya Akademi, POL ( London), Indian Writers Forum, Muse India etc. to name a few.