SUNIL SHARMA - POEMS

Mumbai-based, Sunil Sharma, senior academic, has published five collections of poetry, two collection of short fiction, one novel and co-edited five books of poetry, short fiction and literary criticism. Recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award---2012. Another notable achievement is his select poems were published in the prestigious UN project: Happiness: The Delight-Tree-2015.

He edits English section of the monthly Setu, a bilingual journal from Pittsburgh, USA:

http://www.setumag.com/p/setu-home.html

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                                      Mudflats
 
 
On the mudflats of Mumbai
a few scattered here-there
like the wind-driven clothes
of the ‘illegal’ occupants
living in tarpaulin huts
on the dirty beach,
 
the skeletal hands search
for the sea shells under the
mud and rocks for hours,
eyes blank and hollow-faced
surviving on the bounty of sea;
 
a collection of shells fetches few
rupees, hooch and stale bread-n-fish,
while fair-plump youngsters as couples
savour the rains and the waves
adding adventure to a staid romance
frowned upon by the parents and police!
 
It is a dangerous territory where ghosts
reside.
 


                                    Cheating death


Those enshrined in remembering hearts
can never die


daily worshipped by someone
that converts absence into a presence, lingering;


they get resurrected every night, when mind
wakes up the longing heart and fused thus,
rustles up memories grey-n-dull and brings back
the dead to life, in rooms full of walking moonlight!
Better it is to be recalled from the underworld
by a loving guy or a friend or a brother who is very much Keats-like


rather than be completely forgotten,
becoming another Gregor Samsa,
our contemporary,
and then finally erased
while still alive, in a dead place.
 


                                   Difference
 


Dog
licking portrait
of its master
daily
 
behind the gold-rimmed specs
a stern visage
a bit redeemed
by a curve on lips
burnt by smoking
 
otherwise, unseen
in a house
on the edge of a suburban river
with toxic fumes.

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