Special Edition: Avantika Vijay Singh

Avantika Vijay Singh

Why Must My Heart Weep So?

God, the mighty painter

took a brush of silver,

and splashed greens and blues,

a symphony of hues

across a blank canvas—

Paradise must be thus.

But where He gave beauty

Also, came poverty

As if to balance scales…

Paradoxical tales.

Oh! Why must it be so?

Why can both, we not know?

Perhaps, because it needs

people strong to stem the bleeds.

People with courage grand

to match the richness of the land,

only those could harvest

seeds sowed by the artist.

Natural disasters

often visited her.

Stoically she faced

the tragedies that traced

broken lines on her hands—

Her life was in His hands.

For in the shades of green,

and waving tangerine

there was a confidence

born out of providence

that it would serve their need,

beyond that was plain greed. 

But that was set to change

When people came strange

Viewing them from scarcity

and not the lens of plenty,

birthing inequity,

discontent and misery.

Why must the barrenness

of the inner compass

point the way to “riches”?

Is a decrepitude 

of spirit and attitude

the way to plenitude?

 

Why is there scarcity 

in lands with much beauty?

Why must the land be robbed,

raped, pillaged, and plundered

of its rare element?

Is this development?

Why must my heart weep so?

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Bio: Avantika Vijay Singh is a communications professional, wearing the hats of a writer, editor, poet, researcher, and photographer. She has authored two solo anthologies, edited three anthologies, and has been published in national and international journals. She received the Nissim International Award Runner Up 2023, WE Gifted Poet 2024, and WE Illumination Award 2024.

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Setu, January 2025