Yesterday a woman placed
a rose over my chest,
as if I were dead.
~ K. Satchidanandan
If you have only a single rose to offer me
Do not offer it
As a tombstone of the future
Do not offer it
As a way to tempt my superstitious heart
With your amnesic fingers
If you have only a single rose to offer me
Do not sever it from its stem
A rose without thorns
Is a rose as blind as the horse
Abandoned by its master
If you have only a single rose to offer me
Place it between your sleeping breasts
Let the buds wither from the air of your breathing
Let it smell of your nightmares
If you have only a single rose to offer me
Choose a rose aching for life.
~ Manash Bhattacharjee
Manash Bhattacharjee is a poet and writer from New Delhi. His first collection, ‘Ghalib’s Tomb and Other Poems’, was published in November 2013 by The London Magazine.