To Our Unborn and Other Poems

1 – To our unborn

Stand on your toes tall, watch
the world. Let the morning Sun
glaze your thoughts – Orange
yellow, let it be. Play with fire
spewing dragons, slay them
with your innocence. Smile

fervently. Learn
curiously. Charm
ardently. Take

the crimson balm of the evening
skies, and drift with the seas.
Mould the winds to obey your words
make friends with the trees, then follow
the murmurations of Mynas
and go hum with the bees.

Ask the questions but don’t seek
answers always, see like the birds see.

Follow the music of your heart, like
a river breaks
away from stillness
but don’t lose kindness
for the world is getting more bleak.

Hope these words
reach you through
an untamed landscape
of spring. Your eyes

are a reflection of my dreams

2 – Risking it

I am risking it with a flower
I am dropping all the bombs
and guns. I am cutting off all
the barbed wires, and joining
my hands in a prayer with this
flower placed in it, offering

this inner layer of my heart
these hardened hands worn out
by holding metal too long
not knowing the softness of a petal-

this color of sunshine, the openness
of sky – vastness of embrace
the deepening of green and brown
which knows no enemy. I am risking
it all with my lips pursed open

waiting for your smile.

Bhaskar Pitla’s recent poetry has been published in the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English: 2020-2021, The Shape of a Poem: The Red River Book of Contemporary Erotic Poetry, Cordite Poetry Review, UK based Setu Bilingual Journal, online journal ‘Narrow Road’. Based in Mumbai, he works in technology consulting. With his other interests being songwriting and photography, he believes art and life overlaps to create an abstract painting.