The Arrival (Kolkata)

 

                                                            By Sarah Das Gupta

Humid air, palm trees

like feather dusters

rising above the heat haze.

Aircraft shudders,

judders to a halt.

Myriad colours merge,

blur in blinding riot.

Faces, skin wrinkled,

parchment-thin, transparent.

Others smooth, soft

peachy-velvet.

Syllables and sounds,

orders and comments.

Tower of Babel.

Cases, boxes, rolls of carpet

crates of mangoes,

live fish swimming

in bags of plastic.

taxis in black and yellow

swarm waspishly.

Door slams,

moves off –

dodging, drunkenly

swooping gull-like

into unknown chaos!

About the Author:

Sarah Das Gupta is an English Teacher from Cambridge, UK who ha lived and taught in India, Tanzania and UK. Her works have been published in US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Germany, Romania, Croatia, among other countries.