Ahana Chakrabarti

Can't Take Your Call, Am Deep in the Ocean, Leave a Voicemail

hi, sorry boss, you’ve gotta stack this pile of paperwork
on someone else’s table. you see
i’m busy listening to whalesong
2000 metres under the ocean, so i can’t really
come to work. oh no, the whales said
i’ll find plenty of jobs here, starting from sharkfood
to shipwreck-ghost. i’m starting tomorrow.
the pay is great here, too, better than anything
upstairs. guess what:
we only have to clock in for like, 3 hours &
then we’re done for the day! can you believe it?
nobody gives a damn about money here because
it’s all wet in the end & nothing matters
when you’re 2000 m under the ocean. it’s like
a fever dream, except the lack of sunlight
makes it hard to see sometimes. also,
you have to be careful not to get stung by
stray jellyfish. they’re just like stray dogs, except
when you look at it that way, they’re all rabid.
i’m not too lonely either, because believe it or not
there’s plenty of humans down here & when we speak
we always speak together in an echo that sort of mimics
whalesong, and it makes me feel less alone. we keep floating
like the ghost of an opera. sometimes we sing,
all together, backs arching, mouths open, shadows
of our voices falling on the nonexistent light.
fog lines our salivating mouths.
we are happy
because we are nothing.

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Ahana Chakrabarti is a high school student from India. She is greatly inspired by the writings of Anne Carson, Ada Limón, Hanif Abdurraqib and Kaveh Akbar. When she isn't reading or watching cartoons from the '40s, she can be found cooking up some sort of mischief or the other. Beware!