Small Towns of Assam

My love for small towns

Doesn’t stop with those coconut trees

Waving at me from Guwahati.

I venture deeper into Nalbari.

Nagarbera and Jakhalabandha pass by me.

I haven’t seen them since childhood

Those destinations of memory.

Some towns I have met only once

Others not in this life.

This passion for old is nothing new

But I bring to this quest

A feeling I did not know before.

Morigaon, so near Nagaon, where the milk farms are

After you cross the nursery with flower pots

Bonsai gleaming in the rain.

Ma wants me to return before dark

But she has already left at dawn.

I turn the car around, thinking of her

But that odd light from afar calls me.

It knows what I am looking for

Glimmering from a distance.

Perhaps it’s only a paan shop when I draw near

But from faraway it seems like a benediction

For what I have never seen.

I cross those banana leaves of childhood

The road becoming narrow, where my sights land

Crossing borders and frontiers.

A one-way ticket is slowly returning

In its usual wayward way

This time without an itinerary.

Games with Twilight

Behind curtains of thought

Language hides from view

Evening must be early morning

The world turning upside down.

Don’t ask for meaning.

Stop bothering me with niceties of vocabulary

Staring endless at the open dictionary

To recover a thorn of feeling.

What is there is also here

And no one can take it away.

The birds are sleeping though a few pass by

This empty dark of winter.

But it is still autumn’s flight.

Kabir told me all this while sleeping

The world is turning tonight

If only I see it happen.

If I miss it, I might have to wait

A few lifetimes to get there.

But once revealed, chances are

I will see it again and again.

Amlanjyoti Goswami’s new book of poetry, A Different Story, has just been published by Poetrywala. He has previously written two widely reviewed books, River Wedding and Vital Signs, published by Poetrywala. River Wedding was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi award.  A Different Story won the first runner up award at The Wise Owl Literary Awards 2026. Published in journals and anthologies across the world, including Poetry, The Poetry Review, Penguin Vintage, Rattle and Sahitya Akademi, he is also a Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee. His work has appeared on street walls of Christchurch, buses in Philadelphia, exhibitions in Johannesburg and an e-gallery in Brighton. He has reviewed poetry for The Hindu, Frontline, Review 31 and Modern Poetry in Translation among others. He translates poetry from Assamese, Bangla and Hindi into English and some of his poems have been translated from English into Hindi, Punjabi and German. He has read at various places, including Delhi, Mumbai, New York, Chandigarh, Boston and Bangalore. He grew up in Guwahati and lives in Delhi.