Poetry: Selections from Tejaswinee Roychowdhury

Becoming Gregor Samsa

I pity Gregor Samsa.

Hiding in shame-fear-shame,

Until there is none left,

Fading into an exoskeleton—

A thing of nightmares.

 

*

 

In the eye of cyclones

Searching for a voice in my head.

I want to eat ash and disappear

Under the bed in the attic

And grow ugly wings.

Caught in Traffic

My top hair is soaked in monsoon drizzle

The apartment is a paper dump

I see floating eggplants when I squint

A pair of grey socks are still missing

A stranger baby wants my faulty glasses

I need butter for the fruitcake

The bus conductor drools in his seat

The neighbour has my Amazon package

Rains are heavier when car horns screech

The cactus won’t need water tomorrow, but

 

I want to release balloons made of silk—

because monkeys ride ponies on waterlogged streets

 

Douglas Says

Douglas says,

last night, he was a boy

on the cusp of manhood,

running across a field of wild grass

to the old coal factory facing Texas

—on a gliding eagle’s watch.

 

Douglas says,

last night, he was a teen

in an apron after hours,

wiping down tables, shouting

at his uncle’s trembling mustache

—I want out, I want out.

 

Douglas says,

last night, he was a man

by an open casket and his lady,

he saw auntie’s teardrop turn to dust,

pour down a cheek on her only lapel pin

—a desert flower made of rust.

 

Douglas says,

last night, he was in NYC,

reeking of whiskey, covered in cuts,

muttering in fragmented sleep

on the bench in a holding cell

—not a soul to bail him out.

 

I am on a bus with Douglas,

from Denver to Albuquerque.

I do not know this Douglas,

though one I did in London city

in Mr. Yen’s cello class.

 

Douglas says,

he is fine.

Tejaswinee Roychowdhury is a writer, poet, and artist from West Bengal, India. Her fiction and poetry have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2023, and her work has been or is scheduled to be widely published in Dreich Magazine, Muse India, Paddler Press, Amity (Hawakal, 2022), The Unconventional Courier, Roi Fainéant, Taco Bell Quarterly, Kitaab, and more. Founder of The Hooghly Review, Tejaswinee is also a lawyer and can be found tweeting at @TejaswineeRC