Shyamolima Saikia

Being Mediocre

I am a small town girl
With papier-mache dreams
I live each day as if
Dreams all of a sudden 
Would come true

Waiting for the mail in my inbox
As if some news would pop up
Out of the blue,

Or else if nothing happens
Toying with paint boxes,
miniatures and masks,
I’ve nothing to brag about

Except my quiet corner,
Tugging my notebook
I wish to chisel the world 
With my words as armour.
 
My abode has no interior décor
But shoddy shelves
Piled with dog- eared mushy books,
Nor do I have expensive foreign tours
To showcase in my posts

So I carve out 
My own vignettes of toppling Eiffel towers, 
Straightening leaning Pisas
And a less enigmatic Monalisa,

Despite the rough patches
Unmet goals, missed races,  
I love basking in lazy solitude,
Deferred tasks and unhurried little pleasures;
As if to stretch them

And meet somehow
The thirty days’ expense,
I count my bucks
And stub out my impossible cravings
And carry in my heart a joie de vivre
Still happy with
The November rains…

Shyamolima Saikia works as an Assistant Professor in the Dept. Of English, Gargaon College, Sivasagar, Assam. Besides editing a number of books, she has also published a book of poems titled Palimpsest. Her poems have been published in Borderless Journal, Muse India, Indian Periodical, Virtuoso, Teesta Review, Soul Connection, newspapers like “The Assam Tribune”, “The Sentinel” and anthologies like Antargata, Fragrance of Life, the Kali Project among others.