“some other nights” by Mallika Bhaumik

Nights are essays in loneliness
words scrawled in the dark
none to be retrieved,
I stretch on the bed; disheveled like my hair,
twinning with the night.
My flesh sinks
far below, a famished city blinks.
Nights have lost their chastity.
they stand stark naked, tired breasts sigh,
they have no mysteries to guard
they weave no dreams for lovers.


I search for time – fleeting, disloyal,
a longing for the things that once drew the graffiti of my life.
They slowly fade like plaintive rays of the sinking sun.
A slice of a room,
an earthen pitcher,
the overweight sling bag,
stacks of reading materials
and star dotted nights spread outside
the window bars.

Mallika Bhaumik’s poetry, short stories, article, interview, travelogue have been published in e-mags like Staghill Literary journal, The Wagon Magazine, Cafe Dissensus, Oddball magazine, Spark magazine, Pangolin review, Narrow Road, Ethos Literary Journal, The WomanInc, Learning and Creativity, Get Bengal, Glomag Shot glass journal, Mark literary review and others. She has won the Reuel International award for her debut poetry book, Echoes by Authorspress, which is currently available in Amazon. She lives and writes from Kolkata.

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