Custom Search

Tempestuous

by Ujani Banerjee
(Kolkata, India)


ARIEL

Freedom is sweet, but
sweeter still is servitude.
Gliding in the sunset tinted
winds, skimming the pink ocean
with my toes,
why am I not contented?
Many decades pass.
No one disturbs my peace.
I journey to known mysterious places
where before I came on errands.
Now they seem dull.I drink up the
skyfull of raindrops
yet why is my thirst not quenched?
I sing, and the heavens
sing with me.
But the meaning is
lost upon us.
Purpose is lost, buried
in the ground beside Prospero.
Or in the seas where his
departing ship passed.
I look forward to the End.


MIRANDA

I am a wonder,everyone
wants to know me.
All the courtiers fawn
over me, the daughter of the
restored Milan.
Some seek the sorceress,
some a wildling.
All are invariably disappointed.
I am alone.
Expectations of an alien race
bow me down.
Husband, foster father and
adopted people
tire of the enigma.
I am restless,
my island takes up my days.
I look for familiarity
and find none
in the Neapolitan nobles.
I retreat into my thoughts
and shut them out.


PROSPERO

A King is the servant
of his people.
An outcast
is the master of his exile.
My days of glory are back.
So are my nights of dismay.
The love of my people
pales before the love of
my lost daughter,
the pleasure of riches
become futile
in my powerlessness.
I lie buried
with my books and my
now broken staff
in the isle of my arts.


RAIN

It was raining.
The drops fell
on the asphalt,
as if the sky was throwing
angry questions
at the world.
The earth kept ignoring them.
But, at the impact,
they shattered
into a million pieces
and embraced
the sidewalk.


NIGHT

Night.
There is moonlight coming in
through my window.
I look up and
fill up with wonder.
I feel like a miracle
about to happen.
A universe altering phenomenon.
Then
a dog barks.
I shatter

***

Click here to post comments

Return to Poems.