City's Seasons

marriages are like migrations to
cities, the unfamiliarity and
the task of getting used to them;
my weathered feathers in new city,
combating heat and cold
when the first summer climbed
the greens stems to dry its
succulence to twigs, a snap
of the finger,the tension
of the thumb and index finger,
it cracks no matter who wins.

winter, with its creeping
chill, froze every frill
at home, hardened knuckles
refused to move, seasoning life's
spices well, warm inside
covers, cold when the day broke,
room heaters sustained the dull
gray city clouds that let not a
speckle of sun ray filter to the ground,
portholes of windows let in the chill
of an unfamiliar blizzard that grew
colder as the day progressed

city crept on me by inches,
wrapped the chill, the
discourse of familiarity was not
hateful but comforting, it's roads
intersecting at cross-roads,
circles and traffic, grew on
in degrees till I learned its
maps clumsily like my veins, its
arterial alleys waited to be

venipunctured,
tread on,
explored,
trundled by
feet and dust,
their whispers
abrasions,
when heels click
and kiss
the ground

I learned how to love hate
the lost cities of the self,
nostrils echoed my
breath like tunnels,
my tongue tasted the forbidden
in the visceral depths of floating
hunger that worsened day by day,
my eyes were the alert sensors
to my mind's needs, the red lights
flashed to say I have to stop
and proceed at green,

I touched the muck of the city
and loved it too, there I saw a
piece of my sky mirrored
in its murky brown...

Born in Kerala, South India, Babitha Marina Justin had her PhD in travel writing and gender studies from the University of Hyderabad and an M Phil in
Art History and Aesthetics from the School of Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Since then she has been teaching literature and language in various parts of India, like the Northeastern Hill University, Meghalaya and Indian Institute
of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum.

Her poems have appeared in an anthology of travel poems called “Journeys” edited by Graham Vivian Lancaster FPMI and Dr. Shaleen Kumar Singh published by Trayberry Press / Alexander House, Johannesburg, South Africa, Taj Mahal Review: An International Journal Devoted To Arts, Literature, Poetry And Culture, Kritya, Creative Sapilins, Journal of Post Colonial Literature, www.postcolonial.org and also in various literary journals across the India. Her short stories are also being anthologized. Her research papers on travel writing, identity studies and fine arts and cultural studies are periodically published in journals and as book chapters.

She has performed poetry readings in many national and international poetry festivals in India, has been the featured poet in English at the BBC and DC books sponsored Poet's Meet in Trivandrum and she is also an avid blogger, her blog site is http://marinasravings.blogspot.com

At present she lives in her hometown in Kerala and dedicates her time between teaching, researching, parenting and poetry.