A new mountain road

A luminous

mountain morning.

Little flowers

peep out

from the

abandoned trails

in early spring

and gazes at a

new mountain road

that brought

the outside world

to our village. 

We danced, cheered,

and lit butter lamps

to thank our

ancestral tutelary deities. 

We were no longer

locked in a detached outpost,

encaged by a spiky fence

of hillocks and snowy peaks. 

But the road

slowly turned ferocious.

It took us away

from each other,

our way of life,

grandeur,

and soul-calming

stillness,

leaving only

a smashed

pumpkin of hope

beneath the murky sky

of our stifled tomorrow.

– Bhuwan Thapaliya
Picture Nick Victor

Nepalese poet Bhuwan Thapaliya works as an economist and is the author of four poetry collections. His poems have been widely published in international magazines and journals such as Kritya, Foundling Review, FOLLY, WordCity Monthly, Poetry and Covid: A Project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, University of Plymouth, and Nottingham Trent University, Trouvaille Review, Journal of Expressive Writing, Pendemics Literary Journal, Pandemic Magazine, The Poet, Valient Scribe, Strong Verse, Ponder Savant, International Times, Taj Mahal Review, Poetry Life and Times, VOICES (Education Project), Longfellow Literary Project, Poets Against the War, among many others. Thapaliya has read his poetry and attended seminars in venues around the world, including South Korea, India, the United States, Thailand, Cambodia, and Nepal.

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