Poetry 2017 Longlist Pragati Gupta

My Urge to God

Oh lord I want to be a child again,
Making heaps of sand, win and gain,
Making blocks of wood, never being rude,
Playing in the sun, in the snow and rain.
Once being scientist, once being doctor,
Treating patients without any factor,
Mimicking my brothers and mocking my sisters,
Everyone would say I like to be an actor.
No worry of future, No worry of career,
Making the present merrier and merrier,
No worry of loss, no worry of pain,
Oh lord I want to be a child again.
Flipping through the pages, of my long lost childhood,
That slipped from my hands, like the grains of the sand,
I realize, how time flies, from a small and tender child,
Who clutches into his mother’s arms, on a cold and winter night,
I became strong, intelligent and wise, who can take decisions in a trice.
But I don’t like this life,
Whom the world calls is ‘settled’,
It’s stressful, overbearing and disgusting,
I feel there is a tree to whose trunk I am tethered.
My childhood was a river,
That was flowing day by day,
But now my life is a pool,
Whose waters are stagnant- I must say.
I want that child back in me,
This time I won’t let it flee,
Won’t burden it with others’ dreams,
This time I’ll build my own realms.
I want that smile that motivated others to go miles,
I want to be amiable and to be affable,
Are you listening or I am shouting like insane,
Oh lord I want to be a child again!