Two Sonnets

by Ankur Betageri (October 2017)

Untitled, Ankur Betageri, 2014

 

 

 

It is Evening, the Day’s Work’s not Done

(After Shakespeare’s Sonnet 12)

It is evening, the day’s work’s not done

And time between boredom and distraction has passed

I remember my father’s regrets, and as a correction

Resolve to be ready when death comes unasked.

But my body rebels against my will resolute

And torpor drags me away from my desk and books

My brain weeps for diversion, and desire, the brute

Disrupts day’s order—keeps me on tenterhooks.

And I wonder whether I above exhaustion can rise

And build the Tower of Babel and in it reside

When my Limits all come in tempting disguise

As a labyrinth of connections to ensnare my stride.

I realize then I cannot better than my father be

One breeds only to transfer the dream of possibility.

 

Like an Indian Soldier After a Weary Chase

(After Amoretti 67)

Like an Indian soldier after a weary chase

Seeing the Kashmiri girl from him escaped away

Sits down to rest in some bombed-out place

With panting dogs bewitched by their prey:

So, after shooting down men and dumping them in hay

When I had tired of my demented lust

The gentle Kashmiri returned the self-same way

At the borewell wanting to quench her thirst.

There spotting me among discarded shells

Fearless she stood, seeking neither to flee nor hide

Till I in hand her yet half trembling held

And with her own goodwill her hands and legs tied.

Strange it was to see a beast so wild

So easily conquered, with her own will assailed.

 

 

 

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Ankur Betageri is a poet, short fiction writer and visual artist based in New Delhi. He is the author of The Bliss and Madness of Being Human (poetry, 2013) and Bhog and Other Stories (short fiction, 2010). He teaches English at Bharati College, University of Delhi. His poetry has appeared in Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Mascara Literary Review and London Review of Books.
 
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