I Loved Her | Ananya S. Guha
Walking out of slums,
I loved her.
social justice poems
The Fall of America | Truth Teller
The fall of America
Didn’t happen because
Of outside forces
It happened because we forgot
What democracy means
We stood by and watched
As religious zealots
Worked tirelessly to take away
Our fellow citizen’s rights
Denying them equality
We watched as gun worshipers
Redefined the constitution
And sold us the falsehood
That we should all be
Very afraid and violent
Too many of us believed the false narrative
That government is the problem
Rather than a reflection
Of who we are
An institution that can help people
Too many of us watched and listened to
Propaganda pretending to be news
Telling us to be afraid of each other
Supporting the creeping threat
Of authoritarianism
Too many of us bought the lie
That money is everything
And corporations would
Fill the holes
Making all our problems go away
Too many of us believed patriotism
Was waving the flag
While hating immigrants
And anyone who
Wanted equal rights
Too many of us stopped caring for each other
Labeling people who didn’t
Agree with our aggressive/regressive
Positions the enemy
Spitting on people who believe in love
We destroyed ourselves
By letting the people who
Least care about our country
Run everything
For their own gain
Emancipation | Bhuwan Thapaliya
I look around
but see no one behind me.
All are in front of me.
“Will it make any real difference
if I finish last or if I don’t finish at all?” asks my heart.
I smile. Now I’m feeling better.
I can do this. I can run many more miles.
I look around again
and see everyone behind me.
No one in front of me.
“Will it make any real difference
if I come first leaving all of them behind?” asks my soul.
I smile. Now I’m feeling better.
I smile. Now I’m feeling much better.
I see everybody around me.
I see everybody around me.
Paris I’ve Never Visited | Ananya S. Guha
Paris I’ve never visited
only the uncanny wind
whispered how a city
was embattled with ashes
coming out of a theatre.
Where music thundered
to heart beats
where men sieged a house
set it on fire
immolated a lost civilization, and meanings
of life, beauty, love were
left smouldering, in ashes
of ruin. Where politics did not comprehend love and
boisterous laughter, celebrating living.
Only I know the truth
that a Paris which I’ve
not visited, never will
will remain firm in the
iron soul of my body
wringing desperate hands,
feet, as a weeping
manifestation of a world
surrendering to phantoms.
Learning | Ananya S. Guha
Picking up tears
from cobbled streets
and hutments,
the road
winds to a “slum”
crows pecking at garbage
is there blood anywhere?
children gather leftovers
food, bottles, beer cans
children of the street
school is no happening
and we teachers, we learn.
Humanity | Ananya S. Guha
In hutments we see in equal measure humanity
betrothed to pangs
of hunger. The wind blows
the roof whistling an augury
hard to comprehend.
Little children in shades
of blue, weep forgetting
the toys they left
in heaps of garbage.