Aches, hurts, disappointments,
variously-shaded range of moods
drop in the internal system, an invading virus
late hours, in the silent hours, when one can
hear songs of a spared valley and forest, in the
tongues of the frosty night, outside the doors!
Pocketed rocks drag a vulnerable female
down a river’s murky depths of no exits; the river
writes back into history, so do her luminous words.
Loads of wet laundry hang heavy on sagging clotheslines;
the sprawl of the derelict backyards, lots, near the rusted narrow-gauge
tracks, long buried in an untamed, wild undergrowth of vines, weeds, moss,
wild grass, empty cans, bottles, knives, boots, and an abandoned tent of a
homeless bard.
Pain, stubborn, refuses to leave; voiceless, silent, numbing sensation; a void waits, wide jaws, wide open, ready to
chomp the tender flesh with sets of dentin-covered, triangular-serrated teeth.
Always-awake on alone-nights, in beds, unfamiliar in familiar settings,
rooms no longer the same, where smudged mirrors reflect deep scars
beneath gloss, a salesperson-smile fixed in the troubled sleep; open
at page 199,
A Room of One’s Own under soft pillows, speaks sotto voce to the young owner, walking the ruins of the Bloomsbury for some trinkets, totems.
A sallow night peeps through misted bay-windows that overlook the choppy waves; a drowned figure shows up, in the porch, near the pots of cacti, salty waters drip freely and weeds cling to that damp overcoat.
Entangled in the thorny branches of a solitary Maple, a half-moon sends
fractured beams over a China vase with a faded pastoral scene, of no appeal to the downsized;
A pup calls from far-off, the whimpers carried by a gasping wind in the cold
street.
Silence re-writes the alphabet of a broken sky for the red-eyed mourners, in search for assuring signs.
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Sunil Sharma
Picture Nick Victor
Bio:
A humble word-worshipper: catcher of elusive sounds, meanings, images.
Published 28 creative and critical books— joint and solo.
Winner, among others, of the Panorama Golden Globe Award-2023, and, Nissim Award for Excellence-2022 for the political novel Minotaur.
Poems included in the UN project: Happiness: The Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, 2015.
He is the managing editor of Setu bilingual journal (English) that has more than 5.5-million-plus views so far:
—https://www.setumag.com/p/setu-home.html
Academic |Writer | Critic | Editor | Freelance Journalist | Reviewer | Literary Interviewer
Editor: Setu: http://www.setumag.com/p/setu-home.html
Website:https://sunil-sharma.com
Twitter:https://twitter.com/drsunilsharma
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/drsunilsharma/
LinkedIn:http://in.linkedin.com/in/drsharmasunil/
Pinterest: https://in.pinterest.com/
Amazon-author link: https://www.amazon.com/author/sunilsharma
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