Poetry 2019 Featured Poet, Jyotsna Jha

Stars on an Exile

Berated, celebrated

alive, coarse,

tenacious, cunning

aimless yet full of aims!

weary bodies and careful faces,

streets full of rude surprises:

grimy beggars sprawled on pavements,

painted children soliciting vulgar caresses.

straight roads, bright and monotonous,

endless mazes leading to nothingness,

buildings lined with age,

trees papermached with dust

smoke rising

from life-sucking homes,

neon lights blinking,

blinding the chocked sky,

sending the stars on an endless exile.      

I set out each morning to unearth myself

dwarfed by towering stony edifices,

nameless and obscure in a swathe of humanity,

this is where I lose and find myself each day,

my city, my consumptive home!