A lyrical, bitter-sweet poem by Dr Tirthankar – exclusively for Different Truths.

Give her the right of way,
the woman gave the geraniums one day more
to breathe before being away.
 
A drop of the sun in a broken cup
was all the light she had
in her little room, three steps up,

 
in a house dreary and bleak,
with a cat for a companion
on a bed that creaked.
 
From the windowsill, the geraniums
cried for the right of way
to be given to the woman
in a shrieking ambulance.

Picture design by Anumita Roy, Different Truths

Tirthankar Das Purkayastha

Tirthankar Das Purkayastha (b. 1956) is a Professor of English (retired) at Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, India. He has so far published three books of poetry in Bengali and many scholarly articles in academic journals. His translations of poems by Sunil Gangopadhyay have been published, with the poet’s approval, in South Asian Review and Indian Literature, a Sahitya Akademi journal. He has been regularly publishing poetry in all the leading journals of West Bengal.