Your youth was a farm
Where you met your man
Who came on a horse
And swept you off your feet
Amidst dry fruits
As you drew water from the well.
Those days the water was sweet
There was something in it
That turned bitter with time
That died in the violence.
You hid with three other girls
In a makeshift enclosure
Below the roof
As hell broke loose;
For four months you were there
Not knowing who will live
And who will die
It must be the worst kind of anticipation
And then
you were running on the bridge
With family and friends
Some got butchered midway
Some reached the other side
Some jumped in the river and drowned
Some swam across and lived.
You reached the other side,
And so we are in the world today
Finding our semblance in your face
Even though it is wrinkled
Cupping both palms over your ears
So you can hear us
Listening to your story
That never grows old as you do
Loving you more
So we can love you enough
*Note: This poem is dedicated to my Grandmother (Chaiji) who survived the partition of India in 1947.
Author Bio:
I hail from the valley of Rishikesh, nestled in the Himalayas in India. Though my love for poetry began with Shakespeare, my city has inspired my creativity. I started writing poems in my engineering college – on the ever-so-dear theme of “unrequited love.” When I started working, I experienced various emotional ups and downs through quest for love, opportunities to travel, meeting new people in new countries, finding my passion, trying to better understand life, working with children, learning a new language and learning to dance. In this period, I wrote poetry extensively. Better yet, I realized that poetry was my way of connecting with people. It was the part of me that came closest to that elusive “purpose” all of us seem to want to find. It was effortless, it was beautiful, it was liberating, and most importantly- it touched people’s lives. For me, the most fulfilling thing about poetry is the sense of belonging it inspires when people discover that someone out there feels the same things they do.
I have written about a hundred English poems so far and I am looking for publishers for my collection. The themes are as general as love, God, destiny, my travels in India and the US, nature, dance, passion, and as specific as the Delhi gang-rape, a teenage mother, a Turkish cab driver, female infanticide, child labor. It is my sincere hope that my poems make you smile, cry, ponder, wonder, feel, and in that way, touch your life too.
Where you met your man
Who came on a horse
And swept you off your feet
Amidst dry fruits
As you drew water from the well.
Those days the water was sweet
There was something in it
That turned bitter with time
That died in the violence.
You hid with three other girls
In a makeshift enclosure
Below the roof
As hell broke loose;
For four months you were there
Not knowing who will live
And who will die
It must be the worst kind of anticipation
And then
you were running on the bridge
With family and friends
Some got butchered midway
Some reached the other side
Some jumped in the river and drowned
Some swam across and lived.
You reached the other side,
And so we are in the world today
Finding our semblance in your face
Even though it is wrinkled
Cupping both palms over your ears
So you can hear us
Listening to your story
That never grows old as you do
Loving you more
So we can love you enough
*Note: This poem is dedicated to my Grandmother (Chaiji) who survived the partition of India in 1947.
Author Bio:
I hail from the valley of Rishikesh, nestled in the Himalayas in India. Though my love for poetry began with Shakespeare, my city has inspired my creativity. I started writing poems in my engineering college – on the ever-so-dear theme of “unrequited love.” When I started working, I experienced various emotional ups and downs through quest for love, opportunities to travel, meeting new people in new countries, finding my passion, trying to better understand life, working with children, learning a new language and learning to dance. In this period, I wrote poetry extensively. Better yet, I realized that poetry was my way of connecting with people. It was the part of me that came closest to that elusive “purpose” all of us seem to want to find. It was effortless, it was beautiful, it was liberating, and most importantly- it touched people’s lives. For me, the most fulfilling thing about poetry is the sense of belonging it inspires when people discover that someone out there feels the same things they do.
I have written about a hundred English poems so far and I am looking for publishers for my collection. The themes are as general as love, God, destiny, my travels in India and the US, nature, dance, passion, and as specific as the Delhi gang-rape, a teenage mother, a Turkish cab driver, female infanticide, child labor. It is my sincere hope that my poems make you smile, cry, ponder, wonder, feel, and in that way, touch your life too.
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