Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay

  is that winter or a garden

​is that the river gnawing at our feet
or the boat having no place to land

the dock spills out eating things anyways
blood suckers on the knuckles of the furthest Key out,
a quiet stranger

is that construction or a halfway home
a rehearsal
a tree

is that felled, falling, jump?
or a step, step, tiptoe out the car

the river is backwards anyways
until head light light

is that fall or a conclusion

​is that a mad dash to the start again or a crawl into my head

the race goes on without you anyways,
a rolling stop somewhere in the virginia green, your version of home

is that a flight risk or a fatigue
a vision
a sweater

is that ran, running, trip?
or a death, death, the last time
​
the road is endless anyways
or you quit quit

---

Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay is an Indian-born poet, musician, and anthropologist, and the author of the books this is our war (Penmanship Press, Brooklyn, 2016) and everything is always leaving (M.C. Sarkar & Sons, Kolkata, 2019), and poetry album "i don’t know anyone here" (2020). She was the first Nashville Youth Poet Laureate, finalist for the first National Youth Poet Laureate, and Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee.  Her latest book Towards a Poetic Memory of Bengal Partition was out with Natyachinta in December 2023. She is the poet and bassist in the band JAWARI, whose debut album "ROAD RASA” has propelled them to the Paris Olympics and SXSW. With a Masters’ in Migration and Diaspora at SOAS and a Masters’ in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, find her work in Poetry Society of America, Tagvverk, and Anthropocene, among others.