PRASENJIT MAITI

YOU ARE

there and you are not

like the dizzy sorrows that are mine

lining my shirt, frosting my drink

as I walk across downtown Calcutta

my beloved misery

where your smiles light up the stairs

and my cigarette's endless

like your days and ways

that are my sorrows, my ins and outs

because you are there and you are not

Prasenjit Maiti is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Burdwan University, West Bengal, India. Dr Maiti’s print publication credits include 2River View, Blue Collar Review, Green Queen, Harlequin, Micropress Oz, Monkey Kettle, Nightingale, Paper Wasp, Phoenix, Poetry Church, Poetry Depth Quarterly, Poetry Greece, Pulsar, Skald and The Journal.