There is a sadness
In my heart
That never goes away.
It follows me
Like a shadow
Every night and every day.
It has become
A play- thing of sorts
Like a long-lost teddy bear
It makes me shed tears
When I need to
And it brings me a little comfort
When I need that too,
But someday I hope to lose
This sorrowful shadow of mine
And find something better
To ease my weary mind.
This sweeping
weeping
soggy saga
of sadness
which clouds
this guy’s eyes
while raining
question marks
from the skies
is finally getting
me where it hurts
making me
a toddler who
is never allowed
desserts
and I will wail
tonsils vibrating
the sort of shriek
that could ruin your week
until somebody
pinches my cheek
a little too hard
for my own good
while repeating
the outdated phrase
‘big boys don’t cry’
until it is
thoroughly understood
and then I will tell them
that sorrow is a crucial
part of my identity
and to kindly lay off
my masculinity
More at http://www.ivanjenson.com/.
Joy flees at the first opportunity
It does not give company always
Like sorrow
Sorrow is the true friend
It is not ethereal like happiness
Whose life partner is sorrow
Sorrow is one’s happiness
Happiness is dream
Sorrow is reality
Absurd dream is not my longing in reality
So I do not say myself to be unhappy
Even if I’m not happy
(Translated from Assamese by Bibekananda Choudhury)
I see roses
weighing down the branches
of loaded bushes,
her delicate hand
caressing the chosen ones,
the shears glinting, solemn,
under the hot summer sun,
and I almost hear
the cries of the fallen.
We were a paradox of time and space between these jaded mirrors
Where nostalgia bleeds with every tainted touch
Of blinded yearnings brought by the fading memory
I’ve buried in the graveyard of our yesterday’s soil
Where April summers blossomed only the agony
Of your living ghost where it haunts the dark promises
You have left upon my shivering lips.
I’m still lost in the sunshine of your warm smiles
As it fades out in the shadows of our dusky sunsets
Where fallen skies cascade these wistful eyes
Of my veiled sorrows weaving these midnight tears tonight.
Dancing through the sorrow, I step around the pain,
but nothing breaks the bough of memory and shame.
Pressured on my path, I never look away,
blocking from my sight, a single welcomed ray.
Garnered by the dawn and darkened by the fight,
a missed relief, a single breath of solitary light.
A wretched walk, a shadowed path – a history of souls.
Abreast I stand with myself hidden by the folds.
Broken by despair and shrouded in delusion
A walk I take, hand in hand – and draw the same conclusion.