Tejasvi Saxena

 Tejasvi is a bilingual poet and writer, thinker and a photography enthusiast from New Delhi. His areas of interest include Art, Culture, Nature, Music, Spirituality, Sociology, Books and Writing. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Muse India, Visual Verse, Duane’s PoeTree, Indian Periodical, Dissident Voice, Tuck Magazine, Spillwords, Scarlet Leaf Review, Random Poem Tree and Peeking Cat Poetry.

I see the darkness seeping through evening dust in city
And plumes of smoky fog clambering through the stars
In a trail of shacks loosely weaved
Against the baked bricks of ruined walls

Dim lit tenements slowly fume
When small dreams crumpled in chimney fires
And your brittle promises cannot douse the flames
Raging through bellies

These are not voices of human
But, flapping feathers of choked hopes
Their dead eyes set against the howling dust in skies
Awaiting the arrival of vultures
Who snatch away from their feeble hands
The leftover crumbs
You dump everyday

No longer I see them kindling fire through logs
But hear the sounds of bursting crucibles
Spilling the viscous froth of life left in them

Their dreams are winged moths
Who fall prey to devouring flames
You lit in squealing paunch and quivering torsos
Rumbling for handful of grain

They are smoke and air
And charred ash of burnt smiles
An absence who feels its presence
On outskirts of city
And ruins
Who don’t forget their lost grandeur.