Firefly

The sky is now an intense colour palette

You capture the clouds and float in a glass jar,
you open pages after pages,
they store maple leaves
and create an archipelago of fictional islands.

The night opens its wings,
picks slivers of echoes in an abandoned fort,
stars dance on the ghost’s shoes,
catching those dark songs from the storm wind.

On the hour, every hour
you put abstracts into the dialogue,
a balance between line and form in the
the rice paper and water colour,

Fireflies shine around the factory chimney.

Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 24 books published, including five jointly edited books. His poetry is also published across various anthologies as well as in eminent journals of India and abroad. His poems are translated in 16 languages. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021. Read other articles by Gopal.