Triplet
1.
From this far-side apartment
you watch jarul leaves darkening with the seasons,
progenies from the shoots’ threads.
Footprints of your ancestors
beckon to you, the assemblies of daisies
are blooming on the balcony.
Sunlight drizzles in through the window.
2.
There are postcards from the hospital,
my arteries are as fragile as a fern leaf.
I oscillate between hope and despair.
The sky is dark like a trellis.
I don’t ask you to bring holy water at my door.
3.
For embraces, one turns to the shower,
to its silken touch.
The grey clouds play music
on the rim of the glass.
You leave me behind with goodbye notes.
Gopal Lahiri is a pushcart nominee, bilingual poet, critic, editor, and translator with 32 books published, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His poetry and prose are published across more than one hundred journals and anthologies globally.