Women’s Issue Feature Poem By Pankhuri Sinha

1. Suzannah Poems

Suzannah poems
Simply became
Mirrors of her true state of mind
Of simply forgetting things
Thoughts mostly
Cause there were limits of listing them
Suzannah poems
Became poems
Of wanting to walk to that café
Or just away from home
That rented place
In that far away land
Wanting to walk to that café
She had started for
About a decade ago
Wanting to walk to that café
Right now
This moment
And not knowing how
Where
Of wanting to be in that café
Writing forever
Of living an imaginary life
Of just being in a café forever
With no tornado of people around
None saying things without words
Suzannah poems
Became poems of standing in the sun
At about sunset time
Emerging
At about sunset time
From all darkness around
Lived alone
The next day
Possibly
In some silent sobs
Suzannah Poems
Became poems of standing in the sun
And drinking water
With quivering lips
Yes
Paying homage to the sun
And picking all colors
Petal by petal
Flower by flower
Thought by thought
Bit by bit
Step by step
Simply pulling together
One’s train of thoughts
As the expression goes.
And
A train passed right in front
And a station was right in front
And there were million kinds of politics
About crossing the road
And boarding it.
Boarding the standing train.
There were scratched train tickets
Warnings by transit officers
There was clear roommate politics
Being run by someone
Extremely powerful.
There were metaphors of buying the ticket
And the ticket itself
Of leaving
Of arriving
Of worlds apart
Of homes left behind
Of doors to get to.
But it was no crime
To stand in the sun
And slowly pick oneself up
And not worry at all
About the speed of the train
The electric speed of it
The magnetic speed of people
The tornado around
And Suzannah poems
Became poems of very slowly gathering selves
Of no rush
No chases, what so ever
Of just living a very slow paced life.

2. The game was

The game was
That I had to come back to him
That I had to see every single other thing
And like him to be the best
That rather than
Settling down
Getting comfortable
Making a home
I had to keep choosing him
Over and over again
The question is
Who had the right to design
Such a game?
Who had the right
To present me
With all of these distractions
From where
I had to come back
Or I lost it all?