Tarry a while

By Rongili Biswas

Like the gloaming 
that’s fallen upon the hills,
tarry a while in the trembling dusk.

Steps in our groves have grown restive,
looking for trails and nameless flowers, 
dusty berries or woodland nymphs,
in the amber wilderness. 

Tarry a while till dead leaves awaken, 
alder catkins block all paths, 
and the crowns all done reddening,
by their treasured westerlies. 

Flaming branches and fluttering moths –-
this sundown is ours, this eve, twilight, 
should you ever think otherwise –- 
this isn’t yours, isn’t mine either.

Rongili Biswas is a bilingual writer and musician based in Kolkata, India. She has published a novel and a collection of short stories and has edited three books. Rongili has also published fiction, creative non-fiction, memoirs, travelogues, poems, features, critical essays. She has recently finished writing a novel based on nineteenth-century French literature (forthcoming, 2026). She is the winner of two literary awards. She was nominated at the Iceland Writers’ Retreat, 2023 Award and was an awardee of the Can Serrat Writers’ Residency, Spain in 2017.