Two Poems by Jahnavi Gogoi

Piety
 
The Aparajita blithe
on the bamboo trellis,
my mother’s pride

a distant chime of bells
unsettles the evening as
an arm snakes through the fence
 
bony, weather beaten, familiar
a quick nip and stealthy tuck
into the corner of a worn pallu

smoky incense, earthen lamps darkened
with age, the flickering cotton wicks
admonish
 
but unperturbed the
neighbourhood matriarch
worships her god
 
with an offering of stolen flowers.
□

Glossary:

Aparajita: Asian pigeonwings, blue pea, butterfly pea, found in most homes in India.
 
Pallu: a Saree’s end thrown over a shoulder sometimes used to cover the head.

Morning

Another night spent ministering
to the darkness in my heart
 
I wait for the incessant din
of sparrows on my terrace
 
the man next door whistles
out of tune, the walls so thin,
 
but all I hear is the cogent silence
of your vacant chair, interrupted
 
by the morning newspaper landing
at my feet with a merciless thump.
 
© Jahnavi Gogoi
Canada
jahnavigogoi@gmail.com

Jahnavi Gogoi’s poetry has been published in Haiku Corner by The Japan Society, Shadow Pond Journal, The Leaf Journal, haikuNetra, Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, Cold Moon Journal, The Usawa Literary review, Borderless Journal, The Chakkar, Poems India, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Inssaei International journal, Micropoetry Cosmos, 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, India, having spent her early childhood years in the shadow of the Patkai hills in northeast India. Jahnavi now lives in the beautiful town of Ajax in Ontario, Canada with her husband and daughter.