He Poem by Pradip Saikia

When I come out
To the summer verandah
Through a window cut out in light
He coils up like a snake
In the darkness of the floor

As if we are two mercury columns
One moves down
When the other moves up

When I feed the bait of hunger to the open mouth of sleep
He gets up stealthily

In the glass jar
I am a fish
He is water

He dances like a waterfall with the gurgling of sunlight
When I put my hands in the violin sobbing

Of the same bundle
He is the snake
I am the flute of the snake charmer

I am the tree
He is the woodcutter

I am the axe
He is the scream of the tree

I am the piano
He is a master pianist

I am the dream
He is sleep

I am the sound
He is the jingling anklet tied to my feet

Sometimes he asks for
One of my eyes
One of my hands
One of my legs

# Translated from Assamese to English by: Bibekananda Chowdhury