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From Matchbox
Matchbox – August ’26
I Walk Instead
August 26, 2026
In the dead of the night,
lying on the ghats,
I smell of you and your sperms in me.
I am sick of your stench,
I wish you had died,
so I could wear your ash,
and feel alive.
Suddenly, echoes of a distant kirtan from somewhere —
too late in the night to forget,
too early to die.
I walk instead.
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PART OF A COLLECTIONI Walk Instead and 3 Other Poems
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Maitreyee B Chowdhury
Maitreyee B Chowdhury is a web columnist, poet and creative writer. She is author of three books 'Reflections on My India', 'Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen: Bengali Cinema's First Couple' and 'Where Even The Present Is Ancient: Benaras'. She writes on cinema and art too. Maitreyee writes for Criterion Literary Journal; a journal of media studies 'Kottaka'; Indian Express (Bay Area); Indian Ruminations; YOMO Art Gallery (South East Asian Art House); Gallery 2000 (French Art House); The Sip of Life, etc.