POETRY

Lines Written Beneath a Ceiling Fan

I looked up and it was blue
No, not the sky,
But my image in the ceiling fan
In that round metal, whose name I do not know.
I could see a figure looking down at me
Ah, it was ghostly,
Like a spirit caught in an old cinema.
I moved my hands
to see if it was truly me
And yes, it was
But this dreadful?
Anxiously when I turned to the mirror
There I was
Unchanged.
Was I possessed ?
No,
It was a wracked poem,
Crying inside me
Scratching the back of my head;
Shaking my fingers.
It was not romantic ;
Devoid of love
It was not profound but,
Was a naked body
With no meter,
No rhyme,
No rhythm.
It feared the world beyond
Asked what if when it comes out ,
The apparitions of the classic masters
Banish it?
For speaking neither of kings
Nor of God
Neither of beauty
Nor of gore
What if nobody calls it a poem ?
What if the modernists too
Show no pity
It cried .
Cried till morning. . .
And now I see
One corner of my bedroom
Is filled with crumpled papers
I unfold one
Oh, what do I find ?
Words that read,
Lines Written Beneath a Ceiling Fan
A
About the Author Ankitarani Deep Rajendra University, Balangir · India

Ankitarani Deep is a student at Rajendra University in Balangir, Odisha. She writes poetry exploring the natural world, loss, and the strange tenderness between living creatures and the human hands that both depend on and exploit them.

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