Debarati’s poem explores fading love, leaving a chilling emptiness and a haunting loneliness, exclusively for Different Truths.

Like a chrysalis, the moon lost itself to give rings to Saturn
I turned a hiraeth in your love,
longing to return to a home that never was.
As the warmth of togetherness faded away
Like the receding winter sun,
Our soprano turned into a staccato. 
The walls of my heart burned in
The toluene flames of quietude as
Mara sat on my chest turning
My dreams into nightmares. 
With a heron flying across vast stretches of
Barrenness to return home,
The last train left the station.
That night the Old Farmer’s Almanac forecast
A waning moon and  
Erebus inhabited the trenches of our cloistered lives. 
While I hummed to myself lullabies of Somnus,
The stillness of the night inflated my iris with yen.
Jostling between loneliness and solitude, 
I let poetry act as a metonymy for love. 

Glossary: 

1.      Mara: In Germanic folklore, Mara is an evil spirit that sits on your chest while you sleep, constricting your air supply and turning your dreams into nightmares.

2.      Erebus: In Greek mythology, Erebus, or Erebos, is the personification of darkness.

3.      Somnus: In Roman mythology, Somnusisthe personification of sleep. 

4.      Old Farmer’s Almanac: An almanac containing weather forecasts, planting charts, and astronomical data.

Picture design by Anumita Roy

Debarati Sen

Debarati Sen, an award-winning poet from Kolkata, published two solo poetry collections and contributed to more than 10 anthologies. She has recently made it to the top 50 poets in the NaPoWriMo 2023 writing challenge, and her poem, ‘Maple Dreams’, has been selected for the Yearbook 2022 to be published by Hawakal Publishers. Her haiku have been published in Haikuniverse, Five Fleas, Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, Suspect Device, Pan Haiku Review, and the Horror Senryu journal.