Boat Poem by Saroj Padhi

A leaking boat at a relatively less haunted ghat

half-sunk to be anchored to an eroding bank,

gently swept by the lapping ripples for a restart

but lost to a world of beams-dreamy and dank;



when a pubescent Moon blushes at her selfie in river

filling spines of silvery streams with unknown shiver

and the cool breeze across my mad, marooned chest

recalls yore's golden moments of love's first fever;



the boatman on the other side perhaps thought

I would float back with oar of soul in basket of wood

but drunk with love of water, I'm simply at naught

a stranger in my own world, a queer creature of mood;



my salvation perhaps lies in this beam-induced oblivion

as I drown in love with my own shadows, in magic union!