Stories of Durga: Differences by Ayesha Chatterjee His voice the vocals of a familiar song, each word distinct. Behind him, drums: new clothes, New Market, notun gurer sandesh. The muddy squelch of good conquering evil. Still a messy business. Still the mothballed, darkening chill. Between victory and destruction, a lull. Farmers, somewhere out of sight, reap their harvest, locusts--that other percussion--having done their worst and fled. The faint, unshakeable smell of burning.
Born and raised in Kolkata, India, Ayesha Chatterjee is the author of the poetry collections The Clarity of Distance and Bottles and Bones. Her work has appeared in Magma Poetry (UK), Exile Literary Quarterly (Canada), The Moth (Ireland) and elsewhere, and been translated into French, Slovene, Russian and Bengali. Several of her poems have been set to music by renowned Canadian composers. Chatterjee is a past president of the League of Canadian Poets. She lives in Toronto.
Beautiful and haunting.