A woman with brown skin, black hair, and pink lips stands in the middle of the piece, with a crescent moon behind her, intersecting with her curly black hair. A green and pink butterfly covers all of her face except for her lips and nose.

The roll Call

Issue 14 Poetry

EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD

BY SEKHAR BANERJEE

A prayer is not silence. It is a housing, bombed several times.

You do roll call 

of all friends and relatives  

in the long nights of December. You enter your sleep 

wearing a grey coat, 

carrying a notebook and a pomegranate

every night. Each seed is for a departed relative 

while the playfield across the street 

is covered with blue geraniums and weeds. 

Sekhar Banerjee is a Pushcart Award (2021) and Best of the Net (2023) nominated poet.  He has been published in Stand Magazine, Indian Literature, The Bitter Oleander, Ink Sweat and Tears, The Lake, Better Than Starbucks, Verse-Virtual, Thimble, The Bangalore Review, Kitaab and elsewhere.  He lives in Kolkata, India.
Image Credit: “Lucia” Larissa Monique Hauck