Poetry 2019 Featured Poet, Debasish Mishra

VELVETY VIGNETTES

It rains gently

And petrichor brings the postcards of the past,

Velvety vignettes of memory

Unearthed from the coffin of oblivion.

I remember how I tinkered

With the topography of your skin,

Touching the braille

Which bemused me with its music.

I remember how I gazed

At your eyes for endless hours,

The telltale signs and secrets,

Deciphering the poetry therein.

I remember everything —

Your smiles, your movements,

Your words, your silences

And the long silence that followed.

This sudden gust of rain

Enlivens the past and ushers me

To the forgotten corridors of memory

Which will probably fade again

With the passing of the petrichor.