Poetry 2023 Third Prize, Nivedita Rao

Moon

/For Mah Laqa Bai Chanda/

At the foot of the Moula Hills,

The poetess reposes

Her quill swirls

When the moonlight

drapes her Zenana

She is not a warrior

She is not a courtesan


Smitten by the

shape-shifting moon,

When she lets her words unfurl

Even the moon swoons