Earth tinted in ashen yellow beneath the feet,
dawn has begun with the first light,
Once, the fabric of relationships was so different,
the way the city learned to live slower.
In truth, there was a flawless vow to live –
Tearing apart the web of stone,
begins the austere edifice of life,
The foliage of trees, a symbol of abundant sprouting.
Somewhere, mistakes keep happening again
Untimely bloodshed draws aside the veil
and reveals the face of silence –
The tranquil mien gets buried,
No one seems to return in time –
old wounds stay inside the chest,
inside unspoken hurt, little by little,
an irreparable emptiness accumulates.
.
@gopallahiri
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Gopal Lahiri
Picture Nick Victor
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Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 33 books published, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His poetry and prose are published across more than one hundred journals and anthologies globally His poems are translated in 18 languages and published in 19 countries. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021 and Best of the Nets for poetry in 2025. His ‘Selected Poems’ was published by Classix, New Delhi. His recent book ‘Wasp and Filament ‘ was published by Hogg Press, Madison, US.
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