NABANEETA DEV SEN

House     
     3 May 1966, Kolkata

From one balcony to another, from this room to the next,
I keep running away. There’s just this one house
                        with a few rooms
you can count on your fingers. So after a few rounds
I come back exhausted where I started from. 
However much the portrait smiles its coquettish smile
                        from the wall,
the shadow on the floor cancels it out.
With what terrible uproar does shouting go on
                        in this house!
Glass in smithereens, pots and pans helter-skelter,
doors, windows, walls, corridors and roof lost
                        in a drunken brawl. Running away,
utterly worn out, I spread out the end of my sari
on this lunatic floor, and lie down.