Amitabh Mitra

is an Orthopaedic Surgeon and the Chief Medical Officer of East London Hospital Complex, East London, South Africa. He is also Editor of 'A Hudson View' and 'Inyathi', international poetry and art journals. Author of the poetry collection, Ritual Silences (1980). He owns the 'Poets Printery' South Africa, a publisher of journals and poetry chap books. His CD of love poetry,'A Slow Train to Gwalior', was produced by Harp Records, Johannesburg. He is also a fine artist who has exhibited his water colors / silk screen prints / poems at one-man shows and group exhibitions in South Africa.

Photograph: Boloji

December in Johannesburg

december in johannesburg
brought the heat wave
so familiar
to an anger torn again in
a brittle feeling of windswept leaves
high pitched laughter in
soweto shebeens and lilywhite
close corporate parties before a final
predictable violence of words
dying of maimed wounds in a brisk
afternoon of illegitimate reason.
another heat wave back home in gwalior
had cracked the north end fort wall
assaulting repeatedly the loneliness of
an earthy immortality
and sudden moments of madness that had once grappled
to stay in the shade of
your eye.

Jacaranda Flowers

there are jacaranda flowers ablaze
and the sidewalk mood to my home is violet again
summer in south africa is tinged with such
jealousy of cloud laden longings
shades heavy in the partings of your hair
and eyelashes that bend down in a
whisper
on a red tiled roof of my neighborhood
moment
for today is only a day
that i own
with you
wistful caresses of
a guilt
and slumber
at the far end
of a dusty-noon
and grime on your face
of aches
and yet another
distance.