One Villanelle Poem by Jahnavi Gogoi

 

July

 

I walk on the shore, it’s high tide again

cuttlefish bones, dead coral, chitons, the dogwood tree sans blooms

the rain pelts down on my windowpane

 

cherry season, the fruit we pick is plump, an insane

bounty plummeting to the earth, it falls like a thumping heart

i walk on the shore, it’s high tide again

 

I don’t breathe a word nor break that chain

of thoughts that reek of dissolution amidst the mellowing

the rain pelts down on my windowpane

 

 honeyed liquid amethyst; my lips have a cerise stain

 i take deep breaths to contain my soul

 i walk on the shore, it’s high tide again

 

An owl calls out at midnight, and I feel his complaint

tongue curled with foreboding, I watch as

the rain pelts down on my windowpane

 

My beloved’s voice emerges like a deity in the dark

his name is my last chorale and I sing with abandon

i walk on the shore, it’s high tide again

the rain pelts down on my windowpane

Jahnavi Gogoi’s poetry has been published in The Usawa Literary review, Borderless Journal, The Chakkar, Poems India, Inssaei International journal, Academy of the Heart And Mind, Spillwords, Indian Periodical, Synchronized Chaos, Soul Connection, Reflections, and others. She won the first prize in the poetry writing competition organized by the Chandigarh Literary Society in the year 2022 for her poem ‘If this isn’t love”. She writes a lot about her native state of Assam having spent her  early childhood years in the shadow of the Patkai hills.