The past makes its way through

Lipstick Malebian by Spotlight Artist Devon Reiffer

It’s like being mistakenly embalmed.
You think you know where you’re going
until a voice rises through the air
on a midsummer’s night,
clean as a koel’s.
Nothing can stop it.
The sirens, inexplicably, have paused.
There it is, breathing raat ki rani
through imaginary curtains, turning
your throat to dust.

~ Ayesha Chatterjee

Born and raised in Kolkata, Ayesha Chatterjee now lives in Toronto. Her poetry has appeared in journals including nth position, the Guardian online and Magma Poetry, and has been featured by The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective. Her first collection, ‘The Clarity of Distance’, was published in 2011 by Calgary-based Bayeux Arts.