Nishi Pulugurtha (Voices Within 2023)

Nishi Pulugurtha is academic, author, poet and occasional translator. Her publications include a collection of essays on travel, Out in the Open; an edited volume of essays on travel, Across and Beyond; three volumes of poems, The Real and the Unreal and Other Poems, Raindrops on the Periwinkle Looking: Poems; a co-edited volume of poems Voices and Vision: The First IPPL Anthology, a collection of short stories The Window Sill, a volume of essays written during the pandemic, Lockdown Times an edited volume of critical essays, Literary Representations of Pandemics, Epidemics and Pestilence. She is the Secretary of the Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library, Kolkata.

 

The sounds that frighten

 

that little child lost her home

the bombs changed it all

Some sounds that frightened

Took it all away

 

As she looks around

her parents look sad

She keeps quiet and

cuddles closer to mamma

 

There are others around

and all are sad

 

The Deer and the Tiger

 

Little do we know

Little do we perceive

Such is the world around us

Such are the people around us

Masked mostly –

 

The deer fails to notice

the orange and black lurkings

only green hues visible

As the predator sits in wait

hidden.

 

The deer sees only green shades

the predator makes a move

in stealth

Deft and steady

but fails this time

 

camouflages...

 

 

The man in the frame

 

That man in my room on the wall looks at me

I like talking to him.

He just looks through that frame

That shines

He does not ask me questions

I do not like answering questions

Why do people ask so many questions?

 

He listens to all that I say.

He does not say anything

At times, I get angry with him for not saying anything

I know who he is

I think I know

Who is he?

I do not want another question

It is nice outside, I look away.

---

Setu, November 2023 :: Voices Within 2023