June 2026

poetry

erasures

by Debasis Mukhopadhyay


mere memories 

you say again 

by tomorrow blood will press against

their edges of eternity 

across the sea

where old corpses 

pour shadows 

like a rolled up parchment 

into my sense of roots


to drown them out in the glare of sun

or to let the stubborn soul lean out toward 

the rage of Wagner 

you court with many bends in your jazz 

Ismaelillo 

i don’t want to know anymore 

beneath my heart

the little knots of Havana that startle out of your music 

& take form of butterflies 


with music in the throat in a timeless dishevelment

how it is that little Francisco is still chasing 

the smudge of his father’s stories 

in the errands of clouds 

by the sea

heart tucked in salty spume 

yields to the sweep of blue blue 

until that young boy becomes also you Ismaelillo

destined to be blown through 

the erasures in my books

that i tried so hard to catch a glimpse of in my life 


debasis-mukhopadhyay
Debasis Mukhopadhyay

Debasis Mukhopadhyay is the author of the chapbook kyrie eleison or all robins taken out of context (Finishing Line Press, 2017). His poems have appeared in The Curly Mind, Posit, Words Dance, Erbacce, I am not a silent poet, New Verse News, Anapest Journal, Thirteen Myna Birds, Scarlet Leaf Review, With Painted Words, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere. His work has been nominated for the Best of the Net.Debasis lives & writes in Montreal, Canada. 

Follow him at https://debasismukhopadhyay.wordpress.com/ or @dbasis_m on Twitter. 

More work by Debasis Mukhopadhyay

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