In deep solitude, you hear
this rhythmic wasting
of the body, this slow ebbing away
of the cells, like dimming
of light bulbs patch by patch
in load shedding of a vast city;
a lone body fading quietly away
into the dark void, and you shed
yourself like torn, yellow leaves
of autumn, and hear your own roaring
blood clotting into a dead silence;
sounding like broken pieces
of ice unlatching
inside a defrosting fridge.
You hear the skin sagging
like a tattered cloth outgrowing
its frail body,
and see your strained breath
losing its way in the dense wilderness
of gloom, where the fruits
of your dreams rot. You hear
the light waning in your shrunken eyes.
And this bone-wagon of a body
slowing down to a screeching halt.
Durga Prasad Panda is an accomplished bilingual poet and critic whose works have appeared in prestigious literary journals across the country and abroad. Anthologised widely, he has edited a Reader on the life and works of eminent poet Jayanta Mahapatra.
Jayanta Mahapatra (22 October 1928 – 27 August 2023) was an Indian poet. He is the first Indian poet to win a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He was the author of poems such as 'Indian Summer' and 'Hunger', which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. He was awarded a Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2009, but he returned the award in 2015 to protest against rising intolerance in India.
