January 2003

I seek the silences of your thighs, Calcutta, my expanse and my dwindling fury, as I spit on my grave and look back over my shoulders like my hunchbacked worries . . . I steal your lines and lose my job and kill our children and come sooner than your desire . . . The morning tram droops an early, hopeless return while the winter wraps around our windshield in and out the vanishing green . . . I walk back home in the company of mists and memories of battles and happen to wag my tail and my tongue when I run into my god . . .

Ocean! Ocean!!

You light up a cigarette as I’m swept ashore and walk holding hands with my envy toward the celestial gates of the Bay of Bengal . . . My tongue twitches in fury like the bitch of a winter all around as the sand and the salt and the tears of the ocean rise like litany in unison . . . You run into me somewhere near the waterfront where the beach lies cobble-stoned and panting in season . . . Your eyes move from green to grey to blue as the waves like mermaids heave their breasts in climax . . . Our eyes water as your cigarette smoke is blue against the blue ocean when my envy and I walk in silent camaraderie toward no tomorrows

Prasenjet Maiti (1971-) is a political scientist by occupation and a writer by compulsion! His print (and forthcoming) credits include 2River View, Blue Collar Review, Brittle Star, Carillon, Circle, Concrete Wolf, DINER, Dwan, Famous Reporter, Green Queen, GW Review, Harlequin, Hermes, Homestead Review, Janus Head, Konfluence, Lummox, Micropress Oz, Monkey Kettle, Nightingale, nomad, Paper Wasp, PEEKS & Valleys, Phoenix, Poetic Licence, Poetry Church, Poetry Depth Quarterly, Poetry Greece, Poetry Scotland, Porcupine, Promise, Pulsar, Quercus Review, RATTLE, Red Lamp, Reflections, Skald, Skyline, SOUTH, SpinningS, The Journal, Writer_s Muse and Xtan. Dr Prasenjit Maiti (1971-) pmaiti@vsnl.com Ex-Research Associate, Institute of Federalism, University of Fribourg, Switzerland (1999) and former Senior Lecturer in Political Science, University of Burdwan, India. Dr Maiti's publication based on his doctoral research into contemporary West Bengal politics Problems of Governance in India since Independence: The Bengal Success Story_ http://www.vedamsbooks.com/no24225.htm (New Delhi: Vedams, 2002) developed from a project sponsored by the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg, Germany and examines, among related concerns, problems of neo-institutionalism, civic engagement, good governance and social capital in postcolonial federal democratic polities. He was invited to the International Conference on Federalism 2002_ organized by the Swiss Government at the University of St. Gallen. Dr Maiti has contributed to academic journals in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. He regularly contributes to the Forum of Federations bulletin published from Canada.

Email: Prasenjet Maiti

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