Mirage

By Neelima Chakraborty

If only you could peep into the galaxy of my mind,

You would be blinded by its sheer brilliance.

A defiant, dauntless, dazzling perfection-

Assuaging the ripples of apprehension

With practiced hands- steady and bold.

It shines, sings, surrenders to none.

I reside in its glittering space,

Take refuge in its opulence

When things get too crowded outside.

Outside, the hellfire burns,

Turns every regret into raving phantoms

Seeking gold in the slap heap of past.

Evanescent faces weave gossamer threads

Too easy to snap, tear, wear out…

Out there, there’s nothing but the dark.

All barren, bleak and stark.

But the mind is a paradise untouched by sin

Where the self resuscitates in a twinkling

Of an eye, where the ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘we’ coalesce

In the pulsating blood, music and rhyme…

Unhinged, unapologetic, indestructible.

The denizen of its radiance, its sheer brilliance

Ensconced in the wrinkled forehead of a tanned skin.

If only you could…never mind!

By Neelima Chakraborty