WET WEATHER

by RK Biswas

And so it came to pass

that an itinerant cloud

having slipped from its perch

on its chosen path, descended

and entered my heart.

Clouds carry moisture, but

my heart is wet already,

and red from pumping blood.

At the ocean’s edge, 

dipping my feet into foam

I watch the day come and go

bearing gifts for humankind. The sea

does that too, like the faithful cur

that he is. Unfazed

by rejection and undaunted, returning

after every retreat,

until a kindly patch of sand

decides to keep

that odd bottle, plastic scrap,

lost slipper, a pair of pants. A hoard

of helpless things. Some from the drowned.

Those that got dragged away,

and never sought to be found,

forgotten, left behind, rejected, discards

for the sea to play catch with. Silly

beast. Sillier me,

for having caught a cloud. Who

does that? Now it’s a cough

in my throat. I can’t sing. And at times

my voice departs in a huff,

leaving an unuttered thought flustered

and breathless. Devastated.

Embarrassed. Catlike I

wish to spring onto a warm

and unsuspecting lap. Bring

up that cloud like a fur ball and

send it gamboling 

down the streets with the wind.

I want the rain to sing.

Not hide inside a cloud.

* * * * *

RK Biswas is a writer from India. Her novel "Culling Mynahs and Crows" was published by Lifi Publications, India. Her poetry and fiction have been published widely. She was first runner up in the 2016 DNA-OOP Short Fiction Contest, India. She won second prize in the India Currents Katha Literary Fiction Prize for her story ‘It Comes from Uranus” in June 2016. Her novel was listed as one of the 20 most popular books published in 2014 by The Readers’Club, Delhi. In 2012 she won first prize in the Anam Cara Writer's Retreat Short Story Contest. Her poem "Bones" was a Pushcart Nominee from Cha: An Asian Literary Journal in 2010. Her poem "Cleavage" was long listed in the Bridport Poetry Prize in 2006 and also was a finalist in the Aesthetica Contest in 2010. Her story Ahalya's Valhalla was among Story South's Notable stories of the net in 2007.