Smeetha Bhoumik

On a lifeboat to the moon

(#CeWoPOWriMoWE prompt – Lifeboat to the Moon, 2022)

Leaps of Faith, Oil on canvas, 2003, Smeetha Bhoumik

I have my arms around a kitten
One arm to be precise
The other clutching 
A hand held gizmo 
That promises to show some of the way
A maze of falling stars 
And disappearing planets
All around,
It's purple sky.

Oh, how our own almost vanished 
Overnight!

Looking down I see chaos unfolding -
Oceans, up in arms,
Mountains in tilt
Theatrical sets of earth's greatest powers
Flagged red,
It was kind of the moon to 
Send a boat out for us, and 
Just in time. Who would have thought
The silvern twinkle
Has such a kindly heart...?

But then,
It's got a bird's eye view for centuries
Oh, 
More - for aeons...since the beginning of time
It's watched out for us.

It's sort of dreamy and slow
An unlikely passage,
Like miracles of light sculpted, &
Set to music;
If you know how to look, 
Figures appear 
And you want to wave and run and shout
Jump in joy...but words don't carry here...

I'm holding onto the kitten
And the gizmo
For dear life,
But heck, i just remembered
I'm a sky-being now...
No need for fright
It is 3033, and i am
Back home
To the moon,
It's soft, slow mellow light...

April 6, 2022

Smeetha Bhoumik is an artist, editor, poet, founder – Women Empowered (WE) Literary Community, 2016, and founding editor Yugen Quest Review, 2021. She is the author of poetry collections – Where I Belong -Moments, Mist & Song (2019), Return to Love – The Point of Poetry (2021), and Chief Editor of Equiverse Space -A Sound Home In Words (2018). Her poems feature in national and international journals and anthologies.
In art, her favourite theme is The Universe Series in oils depicting galaxies, star forming regions, mysterious energies of the universe. Her work has exhibited in India and abroad, notably at the Red Dot Miami, 2015, Oxford International Art Fair 2014, 2015, Parallax, London, 2013, Jehangir Art Gallery 2010, Academy of Fine Art, Kolkata 2011, 2012, Barcelona International Art Fair, 2014, in ten solo and forty five group shows.
Smeetha believes in creativity, equality and endorses a spirit of collaboration.