The smile of a girl-child

4 Replies

The smile of a girl-child
Your smile—
Like the dazzling
Thousand suns
In the vast skies,
Radiating the milky ways
With their bright rays,
The teeth
Set in a small mouth,
Flashing white,
In a dark face;
You are the gift of a caring god,
To the entire earth,
Without you,
The creator,
Nothing happens;
Let you keep your innocence
And wide grin
The way they are now,
Without suffering
Murder or rape,
In a brutal world,
Where,
Growing up
Or,
As a trusting child,
You will know
To be a girl/woman
Is no
Longer safe.

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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/

4 thoughts on “The smile of a girl-child”

  1. lokesh roy

    The poem resonates with care and concern for a girl child-summing up her importance thus: “Without you,
    The creator,
    Nothing happens;”
    In my view ,the poem is as spontaneous as topical, touching upon a sensitive issue.

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  2. Louis Kasatkin

    This poem hits the mark with the subtle,well-practised stealth of an assassin’s stiletto blade.The dramatic and necessary juxtaposition of presumed and idealised innocence against the all pervasive moral corruption of contemporary society,is handled with care and artistic dilligence throughout.

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