The Calm Room

You have to come inside
sparkling with the pollens
of outside world
to know the room’s calmness.

You shake your head,
and one square feet of the carpet
metamorphoses. An autumn forest
rustles, and you notice
one of the leaves has no link
to any tree. It has arrived
with the words from
an unfinished story.
You need to come inside to know
what calmness is, where it resides.

Did you notice how one of you
grows older than the other,
how one knows the cat better,
how one wears the glasses bigger
to see the other in completion?

Those are not important
to know peace. Those only
appear to be so.

The last night I saw
your calm room in a snow globe,
and my fingers knock again and again
so that you see, take me in.
Now I know that you cannot.
One has to build his own,
disown it, go outside and come in.

Kushal Poddar
Picture Nick Victor