I Would Call You Today

by Sutapa Chaudhuri (March 2016)

But phone calls to your world

need to pass through

mindless red-tapism and age-old

inertia; passports need to be fetched,

visas applied for, tickets booked—

and then, the crossing of endless

boundaries of bureaucratic protocols,

mindful of the innumerable

guards of honour and courtesy calls

in which heads of state discuss

in low, muted tones the terms

for signing a treaty of amicable

relations, necessary to negotiate

a successful foreign policy.

The distance between us too great

to warrant any lesser diplomacy.

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Sutapa Chaudhuri has two poetry collections — Broken Rhapsodies and Touching Nadir. My Lord, My Well-Beloved is a collection of her translations of Rabindranath Tagore’s songs.

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