By Gopal Lahiri
I want to hear the music of summer.
A music of yesteryears that is unadorned
and gruff, the notes in line with the blazing
morning sun, notes that feel stripped away.
A reminder to the defrost the cloud filled
memories that swell and shrink with the
supple lyrics, a street tell-tales survivor story
around and around in an infinite loop.
A puddle is about to be desiccated, a siren that
goes silent for years, a shifting sky above
knows the fears of outrunning shadows,
of those who always claiming me as theirs.
In summer, I dream of a tall house with
empty windows, the gardens set pattern
of dry flowers and trees, a dream that meanders
into my memory that will inhabit later.
Music is always the wave that soars and heal,
that washes everything except my voice.
Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, and translator with 31 books published, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His works are published across more than 150 journals and anthologies. His poems are translated in 18 languages. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021. He has received Setu Excellence Award, Pittsburgh, US, in poetry in 2020. He has been conferred First Jayanta Mahapatra National Award on literature in 2024 for his significant contribution in Indian English Writing. First Prize Winner in Poetry Contest organised by 43rd World Congress of Poets in 2024.
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