Dawn
They must be my ancestors…these shadowy figures in my dreams.
They slip in with people I know, inviting me to know them too.
I ignore them till I see they are friendly when with the unfriendly,
it is possible to find a friend in an unfriendly world.
Sometimes they turn into pigs, dark and hairy, swilling in filth,
the possibility perhaps that beneath friendliness, there is filth and greed.
In them, in others. No, in me… this after recurrent nights of seeing, noting.
Propelling anxiety but also the calm of finding ways out of swills in
filth and greed.
Sometimes they come with friendly people but feel unfriendly,
the possibility perhaps of something beyond easy friendliness.
Sometimes they turn into still things like a hill at dawn.
Aloof but not unfriendly; Remote but not distant.
No, not unfriendly….
for the hill is calm, lit with the gold of dawn.
Senryu
Alice’s rabbit hole
my chaotic dreams
mirror my madness
peach dreams
I stumble to the fridge
bitter gourd
old hurts
drift in and out of
dreams
pilgrim’s path
a brook burbles over
my bruises
my kite sky high no strings
battle-ax
her dreadful barbs…
healing flashpoints
threading needle -
thread splits...
I pull the half that comes
Neera Kashyap has authored a book for young adults, ‘Daring to Dream’ and contributed to several prize-winning anthologies for children. As a writer of short fiction, poetry, book reviews and essays, her work has appeared in several international literary journals and poetry anthologies. The poetry journals include Verse Virtual, Life & Legends, Failed Haiku and Setu Magazine (USA); RIC Journal (Indo-French); Kitaab (Singapore); The Punch Magazine, Teesta Review and The Wise Owl (India). The publishers of the anthologies include Indie Blu, Transcendent Press, Setu Mag (USA) Clarendon Press (UK) and Hawakal, Write Order, Author's Press, Exceller & Brown Critique (India). She lives in Delhi.
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