Swapna Behera, INDIA

DID YOU HASH TAG ME?

Did you hash tag me?

With my gender

my kitchen,

my caste,

colour or religion

my breasts, my curves

or may be with sanitary napkins

Isn’t my existence

Beyond your hash tags

I am a pilot, a farmer

A nurse and a teacher

I am a progeny

of my own

I run, I smile,

I rush in a local train

I try shy

I win, I shine

I bear, I deliver

I cook; while shiver in fever

I sing, I dance                                                                       

I raise my voice

I rise as a Sun in your horizon

And sleep in my graveyard

To be born again and again

Yes, I am beyond........

and you need me by the way ...!!!!

A NIGHT IN THE CITY OF *DRAUPADI

A night in the city of Draupadi

is so hazy, colossal

Her body becomes the geography

How gloriously she surrenders

to hunger and life

Her reflexive poetry flutters

Burns, and melts for her family

to be a country

A river

A mountain

A glacier

A fire

A whisper, a lullaby

And an Eternal Mother

* Draupadi is the wife of the Pandavas in the Indian epic Mahabharat.

HOW FAR IS MY HEAVEN?

How far is my Heaven?

Is it higher than the Himalayas?

Or is it in the railway subway?

Where my red frock hangs like a flag

How far is my Earth?

Is it a grass field

With the vitiligo outline

How far is my flying zone?

Is it just hopping in my eyelids

Painting love to prove my dream?

Swapna Behera, a former teacher, is a bilingual contemporary poet, author, translator and editor from Odisha, India. She has penned five books. She is the recipient of the UGADI AWARD 2019, International Poesis Award of Honor for Literature as Jury in 2015, The Enchanting Muse Award 2017, World Icon of Peace in 2017, the Pentasi B World Fellow Poet in 2017,Gold Cross Of Wisdom Award ,The Best Teachers of the World from W.U.P.in 2018, and The Life time Achievement Award, ATAL BIHARI BAJPAYEE AWARD-2018 ,Global Literature Guardian Award 2018.She is the Ambassador of Humanity from Africa 2018 and an official member of World Nation’s Writers Union ,Kazakhstan2018. At present she is the President (Governor of International Relations) of the Superior Council of W.U.P, Italy, the National President for India by Hispanomundial Union of Writers (UHE), Peru and the Cultural Ambassador for India and south Asia of Inner Child Press U.S.

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Women, Power & Creativity :: Setu, March 2019