Wednesday, 25 October 2023

Poetry 2023 Longlist, Archana Bahadur Zutshi

A Glimpse of the Gathering


I had decided to embrace
An acquired grace
To be in the race:
I chose the idiom.

I could not match references
To the hallowed men of letters.
I marvelled at the spring of language
Locally grown and neglected.

The truism were unfalteringly matched,
I found myself no match.
Ideologies and bankruptcies
Of tradition were discussed.

It was a large sumptuous spread
Over which my distant- guest,
Now appeased, offered
Her local delicacies:
She asked a gingerly me
To dig into the red chilly
And savour its roasted pungency.

I had been nurtured
In this parlance of jugglery.
My raw utterances
Were like the crackling of the thunder,
The idiom did not choose me.

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