These Confessions, These Heartbeats--By Bibhu Padhi--India

These Confessions,

These Heartbeats

The evening lights vanish without notice;

now darkness is all one can talk about.

The evening gossip veers towards

a place where nothing ever happens.

Someone comes in to tell me how

my confessions have been ignored.

From somewhere the enemies have procured

mouth and tongue to use them against me.

I think, there are two ways to deal

with the dark mouthing words:

to shout louder than ever so that

even the night trembles and goes still,

or to dissuade oneself from

further speech, further words.

Since it is dark and every whisper

is heard through the night air,

I decide to be a part of the night,

teach myself not to be heard,

but only to lie on the reed-bed and listen

to those reassuring, clear heartbeats.

Bibhu Padhi has published ten collections of poems. His work has appeared in magazines and anthologies throughout the English-speaking world. He lives in Bhyubaneswar (India) with his family.