Lifeboat to the Moon
(to the prompt Lifeboat to the Moon at #CeWoPoWriMoWE 2022)
PC – pexels
I have often swum
in darkness,
my arms weighed down by barnacles
my toes nipped at by mermaids
who don’t want me there.
The lighthouse is never on.
You have often rescued me from drowning.
You, doggy-paddling your way to me,
trying to keep your head above the water,
splishing
splashing
sploshing
to reach me.
My love,
why?
Why this constant swimming-drowning-gasping for air
in a sea so full of jagged rocks
and acid?
Why not just take
a lifeboat to the moon
and watch the world go by?
Baisali Chatterjee Dutt is a domesticated nomad who writes, edits, dabbles in theatre and teaches. Her poetry has been published in various anthologies and magazines, print as well as online. Her latest novella in verse, “Three is a Lonely Number”, is available on Amazon Kindle. Currently she is the Drama teacher at Sri Sri Academy, Kolkata. Born in New York, schooled in Bangalore, with college in Delhi, Baisali Chatterjee Dutt now lives in Kolkata with her family. She has an MA in French from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She eats chocolate by the bucketful. She has two teenage boys. Ergo the chocolate. By the bucketful.
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