Rumjhum Biswas

Mesmerized

Who plays the charmer and who the charmed?
Who enthralls? Who is held in a trance?
I snake dance
You begin to wilt.
I start braiding my runaway
Thoughts. You unbraid them
You let them fall
You blow on them softly
To make them scatter. A puff
of wishes snuffed
like a melted heap of candle-wick
But you're not done yet. You
let your voice entwine me
my will power is petrified. I
sway in a frenzy
spitting and hissing like
damp wood fire. Mesmerized
by the snake dance
of your desire.

Life By Murder

I wondered what she thought or whether she thought at all, when I killed her.

It was a necessary death. A question of survival really. Either one of us had to go. So I put together this pyre with all her belongings, her ideas too, tied her to the stake and lit the whole thing up. Then I watched it lick her, inch by soft inch, from her foot to face, lovingly, one flaming lick at a time. Death seemed to be reaching orgasm as the flames devoured her. Her face was the last to go, and it held my eyes till the flames sprouted from its sockets. But, I stood my ground. I could not afford to be weak.

I ensured that nothing remained. No smoke, no ash, no half burnt bone that could come back to haunt. Water is the universal solvent, especially when it is fortified with spirits. I was determined to purge the spirits, quickly and definitely. After that, there would be no mourning period, I decided. I would not look back. That book is closed. That part is over and done with. And, I was going to move on; I was sure of that.

Now a new life waits as I slough off old ideals, old fears, and old nightmares. I drink deep from the welling sound of my new name. I caress my new identity like a lover. The vermillion branded on my forehead flames and ignites lust in his eyes; he sees me as his, solely his property. But my forehead is far more elegant than that of a cattle rump. And as I grasp his name like a leash, I know who will pull along the other.

And, then, I poise my toes. I kick the pot of raw rice and step inside. The rising choral of the women, some of whom will henceforth be the other women in my new life, greet me as I cross over to the other side, this other life.