Ms. Satbir Chadha, India (Winging through Gloom: Poetry of Hope and Recovery)

Satbir Chadha

Satbir Chadha is a recipient of the Reuel International prize for her book “For God Loves Foolish People”. Her second novel is “Betrayed, tale of a rogue surgeon”, a medical thriller. Her poems and short stories have been published in over twenty national and international anthologies. She has three poetry collections to her credit, “Breeze”, “Glass Doors”, and the recent “The Last Lamp”. She was awarded the Litpreneur Award by Authorspress for her contribution to literature. She is the founder of the NISSIM International Prize for Literature, awarded every year to upcoming writers of English prose and poetry. 

IN THE PARK

The day is brighter today

But the paved walking tracks have not been swept

So, they’re littered with carcasses of crushed centipedes

The ants and moths they fed upon when alive

Are now feeding on their mutilated remains

As I take each step gingerly so as to not step on one crawling

To wherever it needs to go

I wonder how long they’d lived

Seven hours probably, to my seventy years.

I wonder too, if this is how humans must have lain dead

In Afghanistan or Syria or Kashmir or Punjab once

Or even in Europe and Delhi in the pandemic.

My eyes are on the ground but I hear scores of birds

Some twittering, some chanting,

Some chuckling, some beseeching, in so many languages

Some sound like lawyers arguing, some like lovers quarrelling,

Some monosyllabic, some letting out a trail of musical notes.

A sudden scream of the peacock from the woods behind

So comforting, to see all nature is alive.

Before I turn back home I look around and yes,

Flowers are swinging and swaying and nodding their heads

Bringing cheer and hope in the feeble breeze

There’s a song in the air and a poem flutters

On the wings of a butterfly.

The scene I fold in my heart

And come back pleased.

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Setu, March 2022