Contemporary Literary Review India | eISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 2 No 3: CLRI August 2015

Rita Bhattacharjee

Persephone

I

Faces break on cobbled sidewalks in the cold light of day—

their festering loneliness safely tucked under Pierrette masks.

Kohl-shrouded eyes harbor drowned sorrows gasping to resurface.

Ruby lips mask the blue venom of forked words.

Pristine, frilly hearts unzip to bare maggot thoughts.

In this urban wasteland—

Persephone waits to return with spring flowers in her hair.

II

It was the night when men turned into beasts—lurking at street corners, hiding in plain sight.

Gargoyles clawed out my guts with steel-tipped talons, feasting on flesh,

each of my wounds, a vagina oozing blood.

Crucified on the cold road, I lay shivering naked,

longing for the warmth of electric flames—

a witch burned at stake for being a woman,

for going out at night

for having a dream

for being there.

III

The woman with flowers in her hair

stands atop a hill

waiting to jump

down to annihilation

down to oblivion

down to freedom.

The woman with flowers in her hair

spreads her arms

takes the plunge

up she soars

up like a bird

up into the blue sky.

IV

In a world where fresh cadavers are served up every day,

vigils die a flickering death by candle light,

Not a word is spoken as dreams lie splattered in blood,

do I desire yet another resurrection?

Rita Bhattacharjee is a communications consultant with extensive experience in project management, strategic planning, and integrated marketing communications. She has managed corporate and internal communications for multimillion-dollar companies across diverse industries, as well as for several nonprofit organizations. She has recently relocated from the US to India to channel her skills towards social entrepreneurship to increase awareness and reduce disparity in public health through effective global research and training, development of information technology platform and deployment of mobile healthcare and alternative medical solutions. In the midst of it all, she remains a poet at heart. Her poetry has been published in reputed international journals including The Copperfield Review, Contemporary Literary Review, and About Place Journal.

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