“Catch the Spring Young,” Poetry by Sunil Sharma

Catch the spring young!  

A brief season that brings 
vitality 
to the faded flowers 
the wilted gardens and 
fields. 
 
The spring! 

It 
removes the effects 
of the winters in the frosty climes 
or the harsh sun in the moody 
tropics 

and ushers in 
dappled days 
dipped in fresh 
hues and light 

restores smiles on the  
tired lips. 

Also, significantly, 
the young spring 

revives a hibernating artist 
by replenishing 
Within! 

**

The Snow 

the snow is deep 
outside the door 

shut inside in Toronto 
in the winter 

a whole world opens up 
Inside! 

 **

Deep Darkness 

Evening no longer signals the darkness 
that thickens quickly, these days 

the tired eyes have seen darkness 
descend in the daylight also 

darkness that shines on
despite the bright sun 

In a bleak country, where folks die 
quickly, fires burn merrily

the solitude of night stretches into 
days, years, eroding innards 
cruelly 

the inflicted pain, unexpressed in the 
blank eyes, hollow faces! 
 
** 

Scary! 

The wind moans 
Outside, sad tone  

It sounds as an orphan 
that mourns for dad, 

the latest victim 
to the Corona—mismanaged. 

The increased pitch, now 
like 
the lament of a young widow. 

It howls, the wind 

like the dog that misses 
its human family, alone

in the pandemic, gone horribly 
wrong

the losses never to be accounted and 
recovered. 

**

Summers/eyes 

I see summers 
In your eyes 

The brown paths 
Winding near the brooks 
Nestled under the pines 
The irises moving around 
In the depth-less regions 
Like flowers in the winds. 

Your eyes! 
The summers! 
Both—hot. 

The golden-brown 
Colours animating

The doe eyes 
Like the slow sunsets 
Illuminating a sky 
Before it yields to the dark nights. 

**  

Sky collage 

In the wounded sky convulsing above 
the neon-lit streets and smog 

Its punctured heart 
dripping darkness like spilt ink 
out of which 
the stars and moon create 
their own backlit collage 
that illuminates the space 
seen through magical eyes 
from behind barred windows 
on some semi-dark nights 
with the rogue wind sounding 
like a pack of hyenas. 

**

Mirrored fictions 

A white-framed silver mirror 
winked at her from the assorted odds 
of a shelf of a multinational mall 
hooking her on the spot.  

the discounted buy—beautifully packaged—was undressed 
and tenderly kissed for stealing an old heart 

the glass in a morning ritual 
ceaselessly tells she is the youngest of them all. 

Such a medium is adept at bending time 
reducing the glaring gap between reality and perception 
in a suburban Mumbai bathroom 
with its plastic trays groaning with lotions 
and anti-aging creams brought from a 
posh beauty salon. 

Mirrors, mirrors! 
What a fun! 
you were always wicked, playful, collaborative 
altering realities and viewpoints 
in such cultural narratives unfolding globally 
as was/is the postmodernist John Barth! 

***

Sunil Sharma, PhD (English), is a Toronto-based academic, critic, literary editor and author with 23 published books: Seven collections of poetry; four of short fiction; one novel; a critical study of the novel, and, nine joint anthologies on prose, poetry and criticism, and, one joint poetry collection. He is, among others, 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.
  
 For more details, please visit his website. This is his second feature on The Fictional Café. You can see his first here.