Storm in Summer

by Bibhu Padhi (June 2013)

It is summer night.

There is a storm

raging inside the bones,

under the skull—

a storm that is almost like love.

There are the metaphors

of Venus’s shadowy transit

around the sun.

It seems there are black spots

on all things we love,

even in the prayers we make,

in the big trees within which

the winds dance and blow.

This is the storm for which

I have no answer.

Everything seems to fall—

homes, trees

I love to remember,

the pre-monsoon clouds

holding the rains.

Don’t ask me where

angels go,

why I still wait

for truth to arrive,

even though

I am beaten by the night

and too much loneliness.

Bibhu Padhi's seventh book of poetry, MIGRATORY DAYS A TRAVEL DIARY IN VERSE, was published in 2011. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, the most recent being THE HARPERCOLLINS BOOK OF ENGLISH POETRY (2012). He lives in Bhubaneswar, India.

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