Weight of a Map by Biman Roy

Chekov studied maps how palmists study hands. He would look at starred cities with scars of quakes and molten mountains fabricated into mansions. He traced streets that turned into curvy lines running up into sky and touched the royal bluish patch of the sea at the right uppermost corner. Slowly the characters emerged. First, a man with an upturned hat. Then, a woman with a fox mask followed by some rustic women with baskets of fruits. They are a short distance behind a gun-toting, tobacco-chewing rascal, his crotch covered in leather, burning houses all the way to the edge of the map.

Biman Roy has been writing poetry for past three decades and has been published in various literary journals in US, UK, Canada and India.