Piku celebrates the mundane life of a dusky girl, beautifully, in this poem. An exclusive for Different Truths.

A dusky girl on footpath now
Puts a palash in her hair
The burning red in tresses glow
Radiant life and radiant fire.
Heat and grime and sweat of life
Mingles with the jubilant glow
Beauty in the dusty forms
On the pavement rising slow -
Swirling mingling in the hues
Of the metro skies that breathe
Love and life and hopeful stars
Beyond the lust and hate and greed.
Smell of metro loving life
Melting, hiding, healing scars
Hues of metro palash blossoms
Washing blood red stains of war.
In the palash burning bright
By the metalled dusky roads
Hope and life now sport in smiles
Of the girl with a flower in hair.

Life in pavement, life in streets
Life in heat and hope in the sky

Picture design by Anumita Roy, Different Truths

Dr Piku Chowdhury

Academician, poet, author of nine books and many research articles in international journals, translator, editor, mental health facilitator, Dr Piku Chowdhury has acted as resource person in many national and international seminars and workshops and has published poems in Borderless, Setu, Lyrical Passion, Ode to a Poetess, Countercurrents, Techtouchtalk, Indian Journal, RJOE, StoryMirror, DestinyPoets, Bharat Vision, Countercurrents and many more.