The Tempted
By Siddharth Dasgupta
I’ve chased fireflies as they congregated
within storm, bathing an eastern coast
in the lush belief of dawn—an alchemy
of phosphenes exhaling halos into the air.
In the cursive arms of a Persian winter’s
night, I’ve walked thirty–seven precise
steps that bridged Naqsh-e Jahan to
a world map of my own imagining.
Deep beneath the desires of an Arabian
mist, I’ve kissed the salt that resolves
within sand—cognisant of the wind
and my secret, smouldering addictions.
I’ve slowly scorched the Saharas of my
longing—onto skin that has respired
a million miles, maybe more—imbibing
lands and roads and addresses and homes.
Even as proud flecks of temple magnolia
colonised memories of ganga primrose,
I’ve drunk globules of lavish dew, in a
Paris that danced to the frugality of love.
I’ve mapped lust with startling accuracy
—its breath, its tongues, the dictionary
of its youthful follies, the holy ache
within its arrondissements of sinews.
Nestled within a portmanteau of faith
and shelter, I’ve watched as the sun
embarked on its yearly pilgrimage—
charting a sequence from flora to facula.
I’m recorded words both articulated
and unsaid; I’ve diagrammed lands as
unflinching ghosts; I’ve tallied the sacred
and the unsaidness of the untaken…
But then I saw you, flirting with smoke
rings, and my sense of space and place
was crushed—no longer tethered to
the geographies of this chosen earth.
But then I found you, and my latitudes
fled—not willing to intrude on things
made of ether; unable to calculate
these folksongs of the ephemeral.
But then I held you, and it was time
that dissolved; it said—Forgive me,
I don’t wish to hold on—as it crept out
through crevice and onto cobble.
But then I kissed you, desirous of god’s
blaze. And I’ve lost my way. Beyond
city, quartier, jungle, and the song
of tomorrow, I know I’ve lost my way.
*
Siddharth Dasgupta is an Indian writer who crafts poetry and fiction from lost hometowns and cafés dappled in early morning light. His fourth book—A Moveable East (Red River)—arrived in early '21, while a special-edition chapbook—Almirah :: Alvida (The Remnant Archive)—emerged in the beginning of 2022. Siddharth's literature has appeared in places like Epiphany, Rogue Agent, Kyoto Journal, The Rumpus, and Thimble. He serves as the Arts Editor with The Bombay Literary Magazine but calls the city of Poona home.
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