KNOT Magazine
Fall Issue 2022
Anjana Basu
THE POET READS
Lissome as a willow
draped in six yards of sighs
heel taps calling the earth to attention on a slow spring afternoon
the heat about to ebb
and the sunshine and shadows
streaking the grass the colour of your hair
the cause you say is poetry
with a knowing smile in your eyes
and the words shimmer in the post noon air
villanelles and sonnets
motets in the sunlight
a cause on a still afternoon
no one listens their eyes brim over with silk and smiles
the clock hands spread wide
as your heels tap their coquettish minuet
and your pursed scarlet lips breathe a promise
a kiss that blinds
while in the dust the poems
whisper outrage
la belle dame sans merci
and other such platitudes
no one hears
MONSOON
the air is a fish
it carries the water and scent fresh caught from the arabian sea
the sky is oyster pale
and sheds heavy grey pearls
that hit the heart
and rap on the window pane in a spatter
juliet opens her eyes
tears spilling in sympathy
with that great threshing air fish
twisting and turning through sky waters
silver spiralling through the grey and pearl
and green cloud mirrors
flashing flickering
weeping pearls
Anjana Basu works as an advertising consultant in Calcutta. She has had a book of short stories published by Orient Longman, India, the BBC has broadcast one of her short stories and her poems have featured in an anthology brought out by Penguin India. She has appeared in The Antigonish Review. The Edinburgh Review and The Saltzburg Review have also featured her work.