Two Decades
by Chandni Varma & Inam Hussain Begg Mullick
I’ve been going in and out
of your mind
for at least two decades now.
You are a noise
in my soul,
I scratch the skin of dreams
and see you dance among
the narcotic tulips.
Why you wouldn’t
join me in this dance,
ask the tulips.
As they thank me
for intoxicating them
with my dangerously
soul-printing perfume.
Your perfumery traverses the twilight,
I recognize the enormity
of my desire;
the theremin player
slays stars and ghosts.
Blue elephants
live in my pocket.
Your eyes finally meet mine
as they search
through the tulip farm.
We look up at the blue velvet sky
as the night
is alight with fireflies
dancing with the intoxicated
blue elephants.
Two decades is a long time.
The tree we planted has grown taller.
Electronic skulls gather at the beach.
I am on a vacation from grief.
I join the dance.
I enter the gentle, sacrosanct dark.
The war has ended.
The recalcitrant lions
shake the winter.
Your armpits are storms.
More like tornadoes.
Stubborn. Sudden. Savage.
I thought I’d lost you.
The years come with
more cures.
We keep getting better
at missing the disease.
Chandni Varma is an award-winning filmmaker, whose first short film, Second of November, won her the Best Direction award at the Nikon Film Festival, 2024 and was subsequently selected for the Short Film Corner at Festival de Cannes, 2024. She is currently working on her next film, Ruhani & Dolma, a sci-fi romance. Her creative expression is deeply rooted in her theatrical pursuits, where she takes pleasure in transforming poems into compelling stage productions. She also loves reading and writing poetry drawing inspiration from greats like T.S. Eliot and Rumi. She recently collaborated with her childhood friend and poet Inam Hussain Begg Mullick to explore a new chapter in their poetic journeys.
Inam Hussain Begg Mullick is an award-winning Kolkatan poet-editor and polymath. Associated with several publications, he recently published a book of poems, The Magical Life of Inamorato (Writers Workshop) and edited an anthology of 21st century Indian English poetry, The Violet Sun (Writers Workshop). Inam has read at Sahitya Akademi's Poets’ Meet. For many years, his poems appeared in The Statesman. He is the Director-Founder-Editor, The Kolkata Arts. Inam teaches Creative Writing.
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