'I beg one more sunrise,' writes poet Shailja Sharma.
Death is only
A minute not even worth sixty seconds
Yet a well-spent second lasts forever
New vistas win over old wounds
A whiff of fresh air opens
A clasped heart and makes
The heart beat under
A free sky full of dreams
The joy forms a bond with
The future
Unleashing from
All that is not here anymore
Bringing the moment right here
The second is well spent
A walk in the snow
Sunlight, hand in hand
In the mirror
And in the glean of my untucked hair
In the dream
And in the sky with a sparrow-pair
It’s him
In the sigh within
And the breath swinging out
The scented dew drops
And the gush of rain shower
Also, in the naughty cloud hiding behind
The sun-flower
It’s him. It’s him. It’s him.
The tree with lemons dried out? I deny
The tree is here
Leafless, branchless, stemless, fruitless
But with a ton of root, the tree is here
It’s grown underneath the land
Roots are never visible
So, the tree is here
The night’s sky is its shade
Can you see? I can
The tree in my father’s backyard
Is still here
It has blossomed beneath the land
My heart knows it’s
Somewhere here.
I beg one more sunrise,
A couple of rainy days in new pink boots,
A last kiss to dearest roots,
The complete meeting of soul,
On a bed sheet scented with,
Rose petals in the hereditary copper bowl.
Just once, loosen the sky,
Tucked beneath the moon.
I Promise, I will then,
Slip into the shroud,
On a quiet afternoon.
Stealthily behind the window pane
A shadow moved
By the time I got up to grab
There was nothing
It’s like someone
Is knocking at the door
With their sweet, quiet fingers
Invisible
It’s not about body or mind
Or things beyond
It’s not even about
What’s going on
It’s about nothing
But then it’s about everything
It’s about love!
Shailja Sharma (Ph.D.), USA, is a mental health provider and a multilingual author. Apart from scholarly publication and editorial service, her literary writings have been nationally and internationally published. Her next collection, “Sip the Roses” is upcoming via ABP Press, USA. Shailja is serving on the editing panel of a UK-based journal of poetry and artwork.