by Sumana Mitra
Dear Hypothetical Lover (Vol 2)
I am out on my Sunday morning walk,
creaking through crisp winter light.
Amsterdam is slowly sinking and how could I not
be at least a little in love with you
every time you turn your radiance my way.
But that’s my secret. That’s between me
and these tulip-bright ancient beloved houses.
How they tip slowly over
to catch a glimpse of themselves
through the mist dissolving on the jade canals,
in whose guts rust 20th century
bicycles, machineguns and prams.
But it was worth swallowing that junk, think the canals,
spilling drunkenly into each other,
Worth refashioning what is abandoned
and giving it a home inside yourself.
Like writing poems, like making yourself a poem,
to flow over and through
what is cast into you, what you encase,
ghost and bone, lace
of senses, wheels and handles to steer
the channels of being,
which are the channels of becoming.
Now men in migraine-orange overalls are coming
to sweep Saturday night’s broken bottles
and squished fries out of sight
because broken promises fester better
in the dark below the streets.
But if only you knew how long I really spent
on the playlist I made you.
If only you knew how many times
I’ve played the imagined movie of our lives
in my head. And even the endless, cheesy,
made-for-TV sequels
the world cares less and less about,
leaving us finally to our own devices,
leaving us to revel in the private world
of blue prints made from midnight murmurs
that are ours alone,
if only for the moment of our lives,
so vivid, so brief.
Brendon Booth-Jones is an Amsterdam-based procrastinator and former editor-in-chief at Writer’s Block Magazine. Brendon’s debut collection, Vertigo to Go, was published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press in 2020. His second collection, Open Letters to the Sky, is forthcoming from the same press in 2022. Brendon’s work has appeared in Anti-Heroin Chic, As It Ought To Be, The Bosphorus Review, The Blue Nib, Fly on the Wall, Ghost City Review, The Night Heron Barks and elsewhere. Find him on Facebook @brendonboothjoneswriter and Twitter @BrendonBoothJo1 or via his website www.brendonboothjones.com.
Sumana Mitra is a visual artist from West Bengal, India. Presently she is working as an Assistant Professor of Visual Communication at a college in India. She has completed a Diploma in Photography from International Institute of Photography and an Advanced Diploma in Photography from Light & Shadow, an Institute of photography in India. She has also completed a master’s degree in Mass Communication & Journalism. Her photography has been accepted by Digifocus National Salon and The Wall Mag photography salon. Additionally, her photography has been exhibited in an annual exhibition of the National Academy of Photography. In addition to street & travel photography, Sumana is interested in conceptual photography and contemporary photo art.