Poetry: Amit Shankar Saha

Amit Shankar Saha

1. Freedom

Dear child,
Yesterday you kept
your head on your father's lap
and perhaps you slept,
lost yourself in musical strains,
found yourself in a different world,
whereas in this world
of bending roofs and cringing walls,
where to breathe is to disgrace
and the mind's a cellular space,
where thoughts of pain
no music can overcome,
we celebrate independence,
you celebrate freedom.
***


2. Freedom Reloaded

Dear child,
A year ago on Independence Day
I wrote a poem for you.
Do I write one this year too?
But who will share?
If I stare
long at the phone
will it ring?
No. One day you will know
why freedom is also forgetting.
***

3. Revisiting Freedom

Dear child,
You still smile in freedom,
not the momentary smile
of photo consciousness,
but something primordial,
as if we are still being born
and nothing has happened yet,
as if we can still look back
at the gloaming hour of our
independence and rescue
from the cornice of hope
the frightened existence
of our innocent freedom.


Bio:
Amit Shankar Saha is a widely-published award-winning poet and short story writer. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Griffin Poetry Prize. He is the author of two collections of poems, "Balconies of Time" and "Fugitive Words" and the e-Chapbook "Illicit Poems". He teaches in the English Department of Seacom Skills University.

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Children's Literature 2020 :: Setu, July 2020