FLEETING THINGS
by Alolika Dutta
The green ray before sunset.
The burning northern sky of August.
A dust worm’s cocoon
hanging from a coving in a living room.
A bouquet of white magnolias.
The sight of an apparition.
A longing for something sweet.
The distant beckoning of Tarrega’s Lagrima
pouring out of a café where the lemon pie
tastes like a former lover’s mouth.
The smell of his sweat on my body.
The green lady of Norway.
A face in a moving car.
Fear. A government. Single intent.
Freedom and slavery alike.
The stillborn child my mother cannot forget.
The moon standing precisely between
The sun and the earth.
All people.
"Fleeting Things" originally appeared in The Indian Quarterly.
Alolika Dutta is a poet based in Bombay. Her work has appeared in Berfrois, The Indian Quarterly, Indian Cultural Forum, The Boston Globe, Scroll, The Punch Magazine, among others, and is forthcoming in The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Poets, The Helter Skelter Anthology of New Writing, and Aainanagar, a bilingual (English and Bangla) journal.