A Fable of Rain in Calcutta

Saima Afreen

We are the memory
of water 

the rain inside us
knows
it has to return
where it comes from; 

it tries to escape, rises and comes down
in drops
over graves, moss-laden
on silent grass guarding the feet of obelisks; 

the early morning light trembles, stands
at the rectangular marble
marked with Henry Derozio’s name
a little stream sluices from the other two words
like the tiny graves of children inside Park Street Cemetery
the fresh-green trees, their leafy burdens
over glass-finish streets, empty
of wars, bugles, yuccas, soldiers, servants, epidemics.

The rain-soaked windows              blur the thick gray smoke
rising from a stove somewhere in Little Russell Street
but there’s no fire
despite that the wood belongs to it; 

it rains till the city disappears
in unmarked calendars, faces
blind windows, trapped breeze
the red of buildings, tiles, roofs
all disappear inside a dawn
that never saw its light. 

The thick carpets inside dark museums
soak the blood and light of yesteryears
the ashen chandeliers,
a charcoal sky
underneath statues and swords sleep alike. 

My face remembers what I looked like
before washing off its skin
with warm rain and filling the gaps
with flags that people in my time
wore as talismans
for the exorcism of rain,
for the mad dance in blood.

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Author’s Commentary: Rain. It brings everything together -- inscriptions on stones, red bricks, footprints, grass, teacups, faces, buses in one glassy box that floats within us. It carries us as the memory of water and its work all condensed in one moment, one flash, one instant.  

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Saima Afreen is an Indian English poet who has authored the poetry collection 'Sin of Semantics'. Her poems have been widely published in several national and international journals. She was awarded the Villa Sarkia Writers’ Residency (Finland), where she completed the manuscript of her debut poetry book. She’s been awarded the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship (2019) in Creative Writing at the University of Kent, United Kingdom.   

Find her on Twitter @Sfreen