Poems - Hannah Lalhlanpuii

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Sometimes it is easier to hide under the covers,
Than to admit how I miss his light.
Sometimes the space he left is too wide,
To fill it up with poetry.
I remember him at night,
The feel of his jacket,
The scar on his chin.
I fashioned myself a shield,
Out of his memories.
To protect myself,
From spilling a tear,
From breaking down.
Come back,
For a breath, for a beat,
For a day, for a year,
For me,
For us.

~~~


Library Reverie 

Between the ticks of the clock,
Somewhere along the tap of keyboards,
In the soft whirling of the fan,
I could hear you.
Projections on the wall take your form,
Your footprints embroidered the floor,
I hallucinated that you walked in through the door.
My concentration is undoubtedly poor.

Is it the boredom that pulled you in here?
Or is this lonely heart beating too loud for you to sit still?
For, here you are.
You are here with all your breaths, your thoughts and everything more than just you in flesh.
You dragged in everything with you -
Your smell, your thoughts and wants,
As if the sight of you alone is not enough to kill the heavy air.
You were so close,
I could smell the human sweat on you,
I could see your veins pumping beneath your skin.

Eager hands reaching out,
Watch out for that chair,
Come closer.

Then a drop of a pen flicks you away.



Hannah Lalhlanpuii is presently working on an M.Phil. in English literature at the University of Hyderabad. She writes poetry both in English and Mizo.

Four - Lalsangliani Ralte

Four
Four is the dreary intensity
Of shock, of anguish, of despair, of questions,
Of self-blame.

What if, what if, what if, what if

unwanted phone calls
uninvited knocks on the door
unsolicited bad news

Four hearts, four faces, four smiles
Four pairs of feet, four pairs of hands
Four into ten fingers
Four into ten toes
Four innocent lives,
Four loved souls.

When four becomes pain
Mizo men and women, young and old
Rise to the occasion
Amidst rain, discomfort, cold, hunger

Four may be a hurt unparalleled
But it will never stand for solitude
Here in the land of the Zo people
For as long as the sons and daughters of the soil
Remember the narratives of 'tlawmngaihna'
Whispered by the spirits of their ancestors.

When four becomes vague memories
Faint smiles and faded pictures
When four becomes hushed warnings
By concerned parents
In the mortal world

Four will be immortal
At the feet of their Saviour
Playmates of angels for eternity

Four new smiles
To make the stars brighter
Up there.



*On the humid evening of October the 4th, 2016, five children all under the age of twelve, were playing on a river bank in Ramthar, a locality in Aizawl, when sudden, heavy rain turned the stream into a raging flash flood which swept away four of the children. The survivor, a ten year old girl, managed to summon help who immediately set out looking for the missing children. Their bodies were eventually all recovered over the next few days by YMA-organised search parties.


Lalsangliani Ralte is an M.Phil in English from Mizoram University. She has written a number of poems on topical issues including the Nirbhaya rape case.