Silence
There was a guitar long unused in a corner of my cabin,
Grimy with dust and soot.
After the long silence of years,
Last night, I tried to strum an old favourite tune,
And sang softly about how springs of friendship
Vanished like a drop of water on a heap of sand.
Two exotic beings now,
Killed words of love with swords of silence.
Silence is bliss for a poet,
Silence is poisonous for a friend,
But silence is not cherished at all!
Mahidul Islam, Hojai.
Chaos
Do you feel it too?
When your mind is engulfed
With a myriad thoughts,
Like a dreary desert
Longing for a mirage.
Do you feel underwhelmed?
When your anxiety pulls you down
To a pit of turmoil,
Inebriated by the chimera
Inside your head.
Do you feel webbed?
By thoughts unseasoned
Trying to give shape,
Seeking a canvas,
Untouched and unaffected.
If you too resonate with the chaos,
Then breathe, my comrade,
Don’t be unnerved by the psychic quagmires,
For rainbows are rare but not obscure!
Manmita Sarmah, Guwahati.
Empty Oceans
This winter seems much colder than before,
The fog, the dew might look new,
But nothing’s really changed.
Vague horizons and empty oceans,
Dark clouds of pain.
I’m never getting you back again, am I?
These dark depths of despair, this chronic sense of drowning,
I haven’t been good, I lied.
I’m in murkier waters now, and I’m alone.
Did you really leave me? Once and for all?
Was I not even worth to look back at?
The day I met you, I thought I beat the rain,
But now I realise, I was running into a hurricane.
You saw me aching, you saw me bleeding
And yet you walked out of my life.
Maybe my back really hurt your knife.
I still find myself crashing in your memories
I am writing my own diaries.
Maybe it will all be okay someday, maybe it will stay the same,
Even if you forget mine, I will remember your name.
Bishal Bimal Mazumdar, Nalbari.
Voice of Dissent
The voice of dissent is
Not the sound of resentment,
It doesn’t induce contempt,
Nor does it intend to pollute any mind;
It just sings the song of
A different conscience,
The song composed by conscious wisdom,
Blended with the rhythm of valour;
Then, why try to throttle it
With the chain of dread and despair,
As it only tries to hum the
Anthem of ‘being human’.
Abhilekha Phukan, Jorhat.
You are broken
You are broken,
But not so much that you can’t stand
On your feet.
Yes, you are crushed by many.
But that which rises from the ashes
Is called a phoenix.
Stay strong, no matter what,
Life is here to hit you every time,
Hit life back harder with all your strength and Perseverance,
Keep your hope and faith.
Shaheen Akhtar, Guwahati.
