door step, stairway, bannisters landings
railings, more steps, anti-gravitational
upwards, dark corridors, alleys, rooms
without walls
windows shut forever, oblong fever of walls
termites, moss, dampness, Lord Clive
ceilings with holes shot by heroic Bagha Jatin Mukherjee
stairway leading to a star gazed heritage roof
the one room attic where my forefather hid
and jumped to the next roof
when the police surrounded
that surreal house neighbours shunned
which will become a shopping mall soon
a marvellous sodomy of pent-up grief
the roof now lay like a forlorn graveyard
down below the bustling street
must have forgotten the valour of this house.
(Boudhayan Mukherjee is a bilingual poet, essayist , and a translator, who has taught creative writing in English at Indira Gandhi National Open University and has authored five books of poetry and translations.)
