SUNIL SHARMA

SUNIL SHARMA

SWINGING

A bird

outside the

shuttered windows

of the ICU.

The notes

hovering above

the drugged patient---

like the butterflies

in a public garden

in New Delhi.

LOW MOON

The low-hanging moon

plays with a dark cloud

in the infinity of the sky

then hides

truant-like

behind the

tree-tops

chased gleefully

by the stars

in a cosmic dance

witnessed

by old eyes

travelling by a car.

CITIES

Travelled

in many places

after leaving my town

but---

could never belong

to any one of  those towns.

PAVEMENTS

For pedestrians

scared public places

designed for running or walking

in the West, their right;

The narrow, crooked spaces

support the disenfranchised in Asia---

as the open-air markets and homes.

PUDDLE

A kid with a twig

tries to break

the yellow moon

trapped in a

water-logged

corner

of the dim street.

Illusion?

Birds fly

looking happy

and free

diving/climbing up

those heights

sans homes

in the breathless cities,

are they really so?

SUNIL SHARMA

SUNIL SHARMA is Mumbai-based senior academic, critic, literary editor and author with 18 published books: Six collections of poetry; two of short fiction; one novel; a critical study of the novel, and, eight joint anthologies on prose, poetry and criticism. He is a recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award---2012. His poems were published in the prestigious UN project: Happiness: The Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, in the year 2015. Sunil edits the English section of the monthly bilingual journal Setu published from Pittsburgh, USA:http://www.setumag.com/p/setu-home.html