Debarati Sen
Working in Presidency University Kolkata as a Junior Assistant, Debarati Sen’s debut poetry book ‘Blurred Musings’ has recently been published. Recipient of the Tagore Award 2022 and the Sylvia Plath Women’s Literary Award, Debarati finds emancipation in her poetry! She has also been the winner of the International Poetry Writing competition held by the Elite Book Awards in November 2021. She has also grabbed the third position in the National Poetry Writing Month 2022 contest hosted by the Elite Book Awards. She features in the Council Year Book launched on the occasion of Women’s Day 2022 by Literoma in association with the Public Safety and Security Council of Bengal. She is one among the top ten poets of the Women’s Day poetry contest organized by Delhi Poetry Slam. She has co-authored more than 15 anthologies and is recently compiling her first anthology as a compiler with the Quill House Publishers. Her poems have found shelter in prestigious websites like The Antonym, The Yugen Quest Review, The Kolkata Arts, Lapis Lazuli, The Das Literarisch, Synchronized Chaos and Sindh Courier to name a few.
Awaiting spring
On a full moon night
I stood by my window
Lighting the cigar of reminiscence.
Its fragrance wafted in the air
Spilling my secrets to the stars.
The winter clock struck midnight
With fireflies humming a hibiscus lullaby in baritone.
As my fingers held one paradox after another
Pain stuck in my nails like dirt.
I tried to hide them
With a French manicure.
Hiding anxiety beneath the nude nail paint.
I smoked up the moonlight
And let the ashes fall
Into the ashtray of yesteryears.
On a full moon night I shared with the sea my sunken soul.
It roared like my dreams
The moonlight caressed my neck
And rested its tired head on my shoulders.
Together, we waited for spring.
To drown our fears amidst cherry blossoms.
________________
