Warmth is the contour of heat;
history is a contour of us
A kettle is an unborn fire
Fire is a relative of the sun
The sun is a stove of the universe
Tea is a tincture of thirst;
tree is an umbrella of the grass
Sugar is a prism of taste
Tea cup is a desire of the palm
Water is a cousin of ice:
a relative of fog & steam
Every drink is a silhouette
of a craving
Desire is proportional in spring
A factory is a penumbra of iron
Tables and chairs
are shapes of tea clerks
A church is the shadow of a tea labourer
Two leaves and a twig are three eyes
of a Hindu god
Rains are sweat of a hot summer;
the sky is a curve of the earth
I am the shadow of my son
The monsoon is an umbra
of black air
A sprinkler is a translation of rain;
Indian Ocean is the shadow of the Himalayas at dawn
and so forth and so on
I search
more such similes and analogies standing
at the gate of Danguajhar Tea Estate
in spring
Sekhar Banerjee is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. The Fern-gatherers’ Association (2021) is his latest collection of poems.
