Nishi’s poem depicts a moment of confusion and disorientation, where the speaker questions their identity, location, and purpose, yearning for guidance, exclusively for Different Truths.

I look at the bag
hanging in front of the house
That white round thing
It has numbers
And some marks

The blue thing that
I think I know
I look at it

The green in the distance
Some white too
What are the long brown things?
Is that a gate? 

Shall I go out
Do I wait
Maybe I should
 
Is that a bag
That hangs
See, it moves a little
Do I go and touch it
 
Why is it there
Why am I standing here?
Where do I go?
What do I do?
Can someone tell me
Where is my home?

Picture design by Anumita Roy

Nishi Pulugurtha

Nishi Pulugurtha is academic, author, poet and translator. She writes short stories, poetry and non-fiction and has published works in them apart from several academic writings including the edited volume, Literary Representations of Pandemics, Epidemics and Pestilence (Routledge, 2023). Her co-edited book of translations and a fourth volume of poems are forthcoming. She is Secretary, Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library (IPPL), Kolkata.

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