Monsoon Magazine, Vol.1.2., Anjana Basu

volume1.2

Anjana Basu

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GRANDMOTHER'S CUSHIONS
1
Two horses, a moth asking for decoration,
one sequined soul and a fragment of skirt
sitting in a chair, balancing gold rimmed
glasses on her nose
and wire drawing the afternoon
into so many dropped stitches.
The sun calls briefly, leaves a tract,
sits and drowns in tea over Rajput miniatures
and nods deeply into night,
without awaking the horses to war,
or stirring the moth's wings.

2
Jacarandah wanders over her verandah
and into her chair.
At night, she thinks and ties a grey hair
to her sola topi, now crumbling into India,
lost sometime,
age in strange dialects, I knowing yes Missy good
hanji.
It's how they spoke, so grateful, I hope
they're alright, Munshi Banerjee, a nice little bunnia,
Gujarati, I think.
Always thinking wrong, but it was home;
a collection of chairs made wicker conversation
in Ooty, a bevy of ballrooms, a curry of chefs,
a patter of papads, what a collector he was
and now isn't, it isn't.
At mothlight, a graven image flies over her room
and breaks the window.

Most of her life, Anjana Basu has worked as an advertising copywriter. She also taught English Literature, briefly, in Calcutta University. She writes stories, newspaper features, and poetry. A book of Anjana's short stories has been published by Orient Longman, India, and her poems have been featured in the anthology 'In Her Own Voice,' published by Penguin, India. Her work has also been published in many journals such as The Wolfhead Quarterly, The Amethyst Review, The Blue Moon Review, Kimera and Recursive Angel.

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