The distance between tears and rain

I'd like to walk with you


The distance between the rain and my tears-


Flowing in the same tandem..so profusely


That you wouldn't know which ...is which

© 2011 Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury

Submitted to Jingle’s Thursday Rally Week 41: http://thursdaypoetsrallypoetry.blogspot.com/

I nominate Paulami http://ifdreamswerefireflies.blogspot.com/2011/04/seasons-first-rains.html

When we are young, wild and carefree,

Little do we think of what will be. . .

Maybe when we are each eighty or eighty-three!

In the beautiful and sing song journey of cocoon to butterfly

No one thinks of the times that fly

Once while on one such walk,

The walk of introspection I call it-

My eyes chanced upon a moment of frailty,

His was a gait of cautious steps,

Oh so careful, of a life bound together,

The little eyes, in a crinkled smile, spoke of the dream and all the fun. . . Of wishes unfulfilled and goals yet to achieve,

Of the forlorn saga of being branded old.

Why do we imagine the old always as old?

Haven’t they danced or run or been bold?

Why are Grannies always just so…

Let’s look into their eyes and let their story unfold.

For all those old, yet young at heart, we meet and then forget,

Lets remember the eternal song of young hearts and old minds..

And then let’s dance to the joy of such tunes, offbeat yet bold

Listen to their stories, without any goal,

Just the feeling of experiencing an age, of grey hairs and steps

That seem hard to control ..

Lets just once all of us be a bit old,

And feel their journey together and as a whole

© Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury

( Image courtesy Google)

The orbit of Sex

The orbit of licit sex is full of violence, sadness and boredom-

It is the illicit sex that inspires the gentleness of poetry....

© 2014 Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury

Memory loss and college ke woh din

It was a bright sunny day, the time around 11 am, there I was standing in front of my impressive college campus, reliving all my memories of the years gone by. It was three years since my passing out and since I was in the city on personal work, I decided to drop in the college to say hello to my teachers and take a trip down memory lane. My reverie was suddenly broken by screams from another end of the college, as I looked yonder at the commotion, I spied on a girl frantically waving her arms at me & calling out my name. Perplexed whether I should smile or run, I stood my ground and waited for her to approach. When she finally did she enveloped me in a great bear hug and kept saying wow! its been so many years since I saw you. It dawned on me finally that this was someone who knew me and obviously had a great liking for me. I smiled, laughed and did everything else in my capacity to evade my confusion regarding her identity. Luckily for the non-taker in me some people talk enough for both myself & themselves and never have I been more pleased for that fact. It at least gave me time to gauge that she was a junior and was now in the final year of her Masters. I racked my brains to recollect her name & how apparently she knew me so well and loved me so much ( apparent in her bear hug & all the muaahs I was being showered with), but woe betide I was absolutely blank. Of course being the smart cookie that I am, I asked her all the right questions about her studies, her parents, her classes and complimented her on her apparent weight loss( that's always a safe bet with girls) and how she looked so smart..you get the general drift. Just as I was about to excuse myself from this genie..in the college, shall we say. She pounced on me with her delightful 80 kg frame. In Assamese she blurted out that I must come home with her for lunch. My mind went ticking..err where exactly was this home & then my expressions froze! Lunch..and I didn't even know her name! Wow....If you have to know the Assamese are a genteel race, warm and exceedingly loving and this species seemed to have taken a rather tremendous fancy to me. I cleared my throat and offered to give the vaguest of all excuses, because my mind was still ticking away her identity & frankly speaking I was so embarrassed at my BIG time memory loss that I had no words to compensate. All the while while she somehow dragged and sweet talked me into coming home for lunch with her parents, I seem to be literally carried away with her. If you thought this was the end to my embarrassment, you haven't seen nothing yet! Having entered her home I was warmly welcomed by her mother, who said her daughter would keep talking about me and she was so glad to have finally met me. While I pouted niceties and started the same routine of how pleased I was too..etc etc..You get the drift again I hope. Finally some 'Me' time both mother and daughter went inside while I made myself comfortable in the living room. To my joy and delight, I saw her bag carelessly thrown over the settee. My eyes gleamed, surely I would finally find her name in one of her college books. All my confusion would finally be laid to rest. I edged myself slowly towards her bag, all the while looking out for any movements in the curtains in the adjoining room. Finally I was near the bag, I grabbed the flap and flipped it open....Maitreyee ba! ( Ba is elder sister in Assamese) she screamed!!! " Please don't read my notes, they are horrible, you would be so ashamed of me", I sprang back from the bag as if it were a reptile. "No no, I was just admiring your bag", I said. More chatter, lunch and good ol' college days, when I was there kinda talk later, it was finally time for me to go. The meal was great I suppose, but sadly most of it went in figuring out where I was and what I was doing there. Its been good many years since the incident and I still do not know the name of the girl who loved me so much, who's mother was hospitable enough to feed me. I guess social grace and presence of mind saved me from making a complete fool of myself which I felt anyway..some obvious's are better left unsaid I guess!

Without boundaries

My thoughts flow,

Free from the bondage of place, body or destination-

They seek to speak the language of unison

Amongst habitats many and unknown

Perhaps tomorrow when we are one

The world shall finally speak

The language of the 'US'

Without the boundary of boundaries

© 2011 Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury

( Image courtesy Google)