After Reading Arrogant Lines

by Bibhu Padhi (April 2016)

After you have gone through

them, it is better to stand

quiet, like the hill fronting

your house, than go on

to talk about them to their poet,

even when you are requested to,

persuaded to take each line

and image and say what you

thought of them. You should know

that there are things one cannot like,

for one never knew there could be

things beyond things, different

arousals than one is used to

over the years, feelings

that may not support the lines.

And if you did talk, beware of

all the distancing words

that would follow, the hatred

brewing inside intelligent minds

that the poems issued from

so deliberately you could not

take them in, for you are

so different, so far from them all.

The best thing is to read the poems

and then forget them and keep your

mouth and lips closed, rest your

moving hand on your lap 

or keep your true hands

as tightly interlocked as you can,

and not answer to calls at all.

___________________________

Bibhu Padhi’s tenth book of poems, Midnight Diary, has just been published. He lives with his family in Bhubaneswar, India.

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