The sky is starry no more,
series of stars in the galaxy have
failed to light up the moon.
Sun has blotted the entire
luminosity in herself, oh Vincent!
It is you who conspired with
the galaxy in favour of the sun,
with series pouring down from the
intercourse of your palette and brush.
All those sunflowers played the trick,
rendering the sky moonless, unstarred.

You painted these lethal flowers, I know, to
welcome a guest of yours, there in Holland.
The guestroom was brightened up with
the spirit of those sprightly petals,
those bright green leaves of dilemma,
deadly enough, however, to conjure
rest of the stellar world to be
absorbed by pollens of desire.

From these floral bunches of sinister
desire, my daughter tried to trace you
with her brush strokes, here in Kolkata.
She waited for years to liberate,
pigment by pigment, those
ebullient yellows. She challenged your
sunny pride. It was an unending
affair though.

Her eternal perseverance won.
All pollens of desire could be
unstroked out with the bristles of
her patience and the blotted universe
stepped out of that veil of vanity.
Stars shimmered in the sky again.
Moaning moon smiled back
through her beams.

Poet’s Note: Glossary: *Tournesol, refer to sunflower.

Visual by Different Truths

Rituparna Khan

Rituparna Khan is an Assistant Professor in Geography at Bidhannagar College, Salt Lake, Kolkata. Her inclination to Literature, especially poetry is no less.  A few of her works are published and well appreciated and awarded in print as well as social media. Her first book, a collection of short stories, was launched at Kolkata International Book Fair, this year.

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