Issue: Vol. IV, No. 3, November-January, 2025-26

Confluence of Contradiction

I certainly don’t want to go backwards
The Warsan Shire way
Do we really grow into smaller bodies
Disappearing breasts
“I give myself five days to forget you”
Breasts? No, brains, silly-billy!
In China, the laws apply only to the feeble
“Memory is a kite.
Little by little you let it go”
Forgiving its disappearance
One day I will forget the Mahabharata
Cruelties born of deceit
God’s come and go
We are mere painters
Dabbing pallettes of red, blue, grey
Yes, white
How else would colour arise?
Tutankhamun knew he is immortal
Giza and Nesyamun
Or, is it the eternal Sphinx?
Crying out in full bloom
“Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyatta.”

Jaideep Saikia is a conflict theorist and bestselling author. He has also advised the Governments of India and Assam on National Security and has been a member of the Indian delegation for Track-II Dialogue with Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Japan. He was also the sole Asian Fellow of the prestigious military academy, West Point, USA. He has published six poetry anthologies and over fifty of his poems have been translated into Assamese in a compilation titled Susupti.