How I fool My Critics
    Prasenjit Maiti
I write my fearful Indian lines
and look up my dictionary
for meanings that are not mine
and the next moment I worry
and so must I because
I do not know what my meanings are
do you know them, Roopsa? Roopsa
you are a name I have played with too much
to avoid sex
but my dictionary advises me I cannot.
ever. have sex like that,
and so
I remember my pretentious Calcutta schools
where figures of speech were
admired like women and women
like so many pieces of legislation
you and I and Roopsa cannot understand.
I write my fearful Indian lines and
can now only look up in awe
at the great bit of nothingness
that Roopsa and I had once, defying our
dictionary,
accepted as nothingness




Calcutta 1995

    Prasenjit Maiti

 
To a man and his resolution
a woman is someone steadfast
to be decided in the early morning
sun surrounded by the aroma
of a coffee drizzle
as the skies and the gods above
smile down bereaved and jovially bearded
not benign but somewhat clumsy
in and out the Central Avenue traffic
lights smothering the blossoms of
all your soul's passion flowers
as if in life as if in frenzy



Prasenjit Maiti is a Lecturer in Political Science in Burdwan University, West Bengal, India. He was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta and the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His research assignments include working at the Heidelberg University, Germany (1997-98) and Institute of Federalism, University of Fribourg, Switzerland (1999). His work is published both in India and abroad.
 
 
 
 

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