A Parting0 0 Read more
I hold fragments
of you
in my ash-grazed hands
to put them
in an urn
they sound like
empty shells as I
drop them one by one
the fullness
in my heart leaves
no room for echoes
I know your footsteps
will never return.
© Neetu M
The Gardener
You water me
that I may grow
lush and luxurious
you prune me
when my branches stray
too far out or too high
you mulch me when
you think I may
wilt or die
you nurture me as if
I’m too frail to stand
on my own
as if without you
I may fail to thrive
in truth, maybe it is you
who needs me,
to survive.
© Neetu Malik
Listen to Neetu read The Gardener
I carve words in the sand
I know the tide will rise
and wash them away
but I write them
until my hands are gritty
and the color of sand
I speak to the waves
I know they don’t hear
but I let the words roll out
of my mouth anyway
until they sound
like the waves
I listen to the wind
even when it is still
I can hear silence in the quiet
it utters words I wouldn’t
otherwise hear—they come
from within
© Neetu Malik
First published in TAT Poetry, December 2016
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0 0 Read moreThe Hereafter
They say there are
two sides of the graveone where grass grows green
trees bloom and decay, leaves fall
winter winds blow, then
life renews againand you can walk and breathe
watch the sky and the streets
touch and be touchedthe other side, I’m told, is evergreen
peaceful and sedateis it the dead below the ground
that whisper such tales? Or is it
the living who search for gracein their lush imagination
of a fertile eternity?© Neetu
You play the piano, I listen—
notes slide off
your fingers
smooth as ambrosia,
dripping a symphony
or a ragtime song
into my senses
parched for so long.
Thirsting for the heady
intoxication to fill
my emptiness
I turn to see your
graceful form,
your dancing fingers,
mesmerized
the world slips away,
as drop by drop,
pure enchantment
shivers briefly
then sinks into
the deepest
tunnels of me.
© Neetu Malik
This poem was first published in The Australia Times Poetry Magazine.
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Coming face-to-face with her past…
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