Poems by Vinita Agarwal
At The End Of It All,
I shall be painting with smoke the fires with which I spent my life. Love shall sit at the edge of tombstones. My legs have buried names and silt still glimmers on my knees I have always been part sparrow, part woman. Often in my sleep, I ignore the barking telephone And snuggle deeper into the straw faces of dreams, my thoughts moaning through the traffic of a long night. But come morning, I wear the sky like a glove, my messages wear the oceans a love song dovetails into my bones. The end of the world shall be like the end of the night; dismantling the scribbles of years from my face peeling away flags from my eyes, showing me noon at midnight. Silence shall come from the North Every bird shall bear it I shall speak volumes when I turn the other cheek. Foliage will look happy, like a summer brother. pushing aside murmuring winds and making way for the East But a pain-bearing mother, shall stand between the end and the beginning. Always. And the sun shall send messages that we will never fathom. Raw Silk When at last we meet do not say hello That greeting for strangers... We've shared too many moons on the palettes of our nights When we meet Leave the race behind. Face me Become scent Stretch my lungs Become jaggery Color my tongue When we meet Come undone like a knot in the wind Me the shuddering threads You the hunger for silk When we meet Make sure I die of love ********* |
About the poet
Author of Words Not Spoken and The Longest Pleasure, Vinita is a Mumbai based, award winning poet and writer. Her second manuscript was selected for publication by the Finishing Line Press, Kentucky, USA. Her poems have appeared in Asiancha, Constellations, The Fox Chase Review, Pea River Journal, Open Road Review, Stockholm Literary Review, Poetry Pacific and over a 100 other national and international journals. She was nominated for the Best of the Net Awards 2011, awarded first prize in the Wordweavers Contest 2014, commendation prize in the All India Poetry Competition 2014 and won the 2014 Hour of Writes Contest thrice. Her poems have found a place significant national anthologies like Suvarnarekha and Dance with the Peacocks in several international anthologies compiled in Australia. Recently, she was co judge for the Asian Cha Poetry Contest 2015. She has given readings at two SAARC events in Delhi and Agra. She also read her poetry at Hyderabad at an event organized by the U.S. Consulate to celebrate the Women Poets Of India. She also read for Delhi Poetree at the launch of WordWine - an anthology of eclectic poets of India. She was also invited as a Panelist for the DesiLit Festival organized at Chicago in 2014. |