Photo Essay

THE SWAMP

DYUTIMAN MUKHOPADHYAY PHOTOGRAPHY

Be soft…

Be kind…

Be petals of a flower—

I bend myself lower—

In fetid, rotting green—

In dripping pearls—

In a shimmer of the sun—

I am trying—trying…

Can't I sit by your side?

Ever?

Crying—crying?

What else remains to combust?

After the long lost time?

In the sultry summer dream

I melt into green—

Fetid, rotting green—

I miss the forehead kisses—

Sweet, gentle, kind hisses—

Holding hands—

I gasp—gorged in blood—

You rest on my crest—

On my face—

Breathless—

We rinse in bliss—

Poems—

Peace—

Couples made in heaven—

Us—

And the raven…

I swim in the swamp—

Why bother?

I swim to smell the stink that maddens the microbe—

And as I probe—

I bend myself lower—

In fetid, rotting green—

In dripping pearls—

In a shimmer of the sun…

I am trying—trying…

—dyutiman mukhopadhyay, January 2025.

photoessay—THE SWAMP.

Poem: January 14, 2025; Bangalore, India.

Photographs: January 1st, 2025; Kerala, India.

Camera Canon 60D DSLR.