Flowers in a pot

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Flowers in a pot

—Sunil Sharma

The slim widower

Tends daily to the potted plants;

His speciality the white flowers

In a corner of the balcony

Of the one-room apartment

On the eleventh floor,

In the heart of the commercial district,

From that vantage point, the world is a blur

And nobody cares for the grumpy man,

Nor he, for them,

He is so bitter;

But, flowers beckon, dancing in the wind,

And the muttering occupant, lonely and miserable,

Waters them daily and they both talk,

And he sees in their smiling

Tender petals,

A son now forever lost;

These brief conversations

Conducted twice, everyday

Delight an ageing heart.

Through fragrance and colour,

The long-stemmed flowers,

Fragile and vulnerable,

Spread cheer everywhere,

Every nook and corner,

Like the sunflowers of

Van Gogh.

(Courtesy: The UN’s anthology on Happiness: The Delight-Tree)

 

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About Sunil Sharma

Sunil Sharma is Mumbai-based senior academic, critic, literary editor and author with 22 published books: Seven collections of poetry; three of short fiction; one novel; a critical study of the novel, and, eight joint anthologies on prose, poetry and criticism, and, one joint poetry collection. He is a recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award---2012. His poems were published in the prestigious UN project: Happiness: The Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, in the year 2015. Sunil edits the English section of the monthly bilingual journal Setu published from Pittsburgh, USA: http://www.setumag.com/p/setu-home.html For more details, please visit the website: https://sunil-sharma.com/

7 thoughts on “Flowers in a pot”

  3. Louis Kasatkin

    Destiny Poets’ International Community of Poets ( ICOP ) are pleased to announce that for April 2015 , the following works have been chosen in the categories of Poem of the Month and Highly Commended . Poem of the Month ..** Ashtavakra – Vineetha Mekkoth **…..In the Category of Highly Commended ( Tabulated alphabetically ) are the following…..** An Bothar (The Road) – John Anthony Fingleton **…..** Dissolve in me – Rashmi Malapur **…..** Fifty Feathers for my Flight – Iulia Gherghei **…..** Fight of Shadows – Neetu Wali **…..** Fireflies of Time – Maaya Dev **…..** Flowers in a pot – Sunil Sharma **…..** Impailed – Elizabeth Hexberg **…..**Memories – Santosh Bakaya **…..** (The) Minion – Nalini Srivastava **…..**Mortgage Your Blood – Tapeshwar Prasad **…..** On Life’s Meaningful Pauses – Witty Fay **…..** Tunes of Ruin – Rehka Moothedoth **…… ICOP CRITIC Award for April goes to..Pramila Khadun & Maaya Dev.

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