When I go back, months later
to warm tired bones,
clipped-wing ducks preen in the shallows
Their feeding frenzy ripples out,
a scatter of water lilies swaying
in uncanny light
Geese bellow in the distance
but water hyacinth claims territory faster
in an uprising of fat green fists
The path between trees and water
swirls in a slant shimmer—
rumors of a portal in plain sight
Now that it already happened, there’s a boat
quick response rescue
its two young crewmen awaiting worse
Leaving them behind, an eye opens
in quiet assessment— a dog’s silent witness
and old trees weaving over wettest dark
A boat pierces the skin
of awareness. Oars swing and push
in solemn ritual of a forgotten creed
Eternity ends before the boat
scrolls offscreen
humid heat muffling Coach’s shouts
A large fish rockets to surface, gasping
Water crosses water
like beaded curtains stirred by many hands
Farther, where it’s stillest, cormorants crowd
a krishnochura branch.
Blue-eyed ferrymen of deepest depths,
There is much they have known—
air turned deadweight in hollow hulls
sudden storms’ sorrows
Ishita Basu Mallik is a visual artist/cartoonist/poet based in Kolkata, India. She has been previously published in ANMLY, Komikaze, SUSPECT, and elsewhere, and recently received a Pushcart Prize nomination. In 2011, she won the Toto Funds the Arts award for Creative Writing in English. Ishita shares artwork irregularly on instagram @sunbornart.