Sumitra Mishra (nee Balakrishnan) Poems

Feather-light, dust of time's decay,
In memories' grip, we find our way,
Beneath the starlist-laden sky,
Waves of longing in my mind's eye.
...

The morning chai is always cold. We never find a weekend for two.
The bed is wide. The silence old. We never find a weekend for two.

The honeymoon had three extra tickets. The anniversaries, a crowd.
...

Pixie dust
Passion's prey
Teenage fiction
High school odyssey
...

In the still of night, I find myself in query,
Is this urban ‘abode' indeed, or just a ghostly theory?
Where do the echoes of familiar sounds now dwell?
Gossip, giggles, and huddling stories we used to tell.
...

The problem is a giant you carry in your skull,
its shadow pooling at your feet until you think
you are the shadow. But the heart knows better.
...

She watched his leaned-in tears.
Now — was another woman's woe,
Once she had told - the same story
Then he called her dramatic.
...

I am not the first you loved,
nor you the first I beheld with a mouthful of forevers.
Loss, a blade's keen edge, has grazed us both,
and we've lived with lips, with more scar than skin.
...

Beware the siren dressed in innocence,
Her guise, a trap of subtle elegance.
With every smile, a loaded snare,
A she-devil in an angel's lair.
...