A Portrait/ Portrait-Making/ Pencilled Art & Sketch/ My Temptation Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Call it a portrait of mine or my portrait-making, pencilled art and sketch
Or my temptation which but I could not resist,
I saw the young girl standing before me, sitting close to me or by my side,
I glimpsed her, got a glimpse of her face,
Glanced at her passing
And thought of making a portrait of her
Though not with the camera.

Empty-handed closed I the eyes and with the pencil started to make,
Started I making her photos,
Her portraits,
Dark complexioned but with a nice cutting,
The tresses dark black and long,
Waist long,
The eyes wide-wide and oblique, slanting in looks
And impressive enough, casting over
And I getting aches in my heart.

With the wooden pencil of my heart I started making her
With dots and linings, turns and curves
Her portrait,
The lines and rounds-about giving a face and expression to her,
Pencilled art
And stood I pencilling her, the images and impressions of hers, sending sensations
Like Joyce of Araby, Katherine Mansfield of A Cup of Tea,
Belinda’s portrayal of Alexander Pope, The Beggar Maid of Tennyson,
The Last Leaf of O.Henry, The Model Millionaire of Oscar Wilde.

I saw the dark-complexioned beauty, dark but beautiful and smiling
And I jotting my feelings, putting down on paper, giving words to
My feelings going within my heart,
The passions for living,
Perceiving and taking down it on paper
The image of the girl, the dream of the girl,
The love of hers
Which she might be feeling within.

And I giving a red rose,
The red rose of my heart to her,
To that lover-girl, love-girl,
The dark beauty smiling in the countryside
In aboriginal homes and courtyards,
Into the farmlands and houses
As growers, reapers and workers.