Jyotsna Karmakar (b. 1950)
To Grandmother, Long After

Long ago, grandmother gave me an amulet and said:
Your heart will be drawn back to your home

I left the paper spread out on the three-legged table
and unable to find the stairs of the search for the secret of the
people of the lost island
lifting my hands in the darkness I said: Grandmother, you too!

Translated from the Bangla by Marian Maddern