March 2021
Bio Note: I am a retired geo-scientist and now engage in full-time writing bilingual
(English and Bengali) poetry and do book reviews and translation. Yet my first love is traveling
and photography. Being a Tiger fan, I love Jungle Safari too much. I have jointly edited the Indo-
American Anthology Bridging Continents. I have a few collections of poems to my credit.
Chai Jaai (Tea Room)
Each sunset on Jhelum water litters with refuse,
every wall resonates here with chip poems and promises
soft voices are slowly drifting away.
Steamy kahwa, salt tea, salad with chestnut and lettuce
draw trapped memories,
words flow back like melting glacier in red glasses.
Falling leaves drop shadows on the large window
Char chinar and Shikaras count exile years on the
canvass of crushed lilies.
Cathedral alike tall trees and meadows write
imprisoned muse on the canvas,
flames and ashes mute autumn celebrations.
There is something surreal about this tea room
the last light growing out of unplucked flowers
inching towards the decorated staircase.
Colored teapots and kettles are estranged lyrics
evening hides bullets and scarlet hues
on the edge of a wilderness.
©2021 Gopal Lahiri
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