Aditya Shankar- A Poem

A Ragpicker Dreams up the Sky

Wait!

Don’t turn the page.

The publishing of this poem

would be a big event.

Of all the pages included in this magazine,

this is the one to detest (to cherish?), to react.

The poems in here are all balloons;

the magazine is the sky.

But this piece is the one to break free,

to roam the earth like a free soul,

far away from the clutch of his parents:

there is no statement bolder than

the stance of an orphan.

You beat him up for stealing bread

from your corner shop, you call him

the pest in your field.

At the underbelly of your bridge,

you call him the ragpicker,

not knowing he is the only one

who stitches together your true story.

He is at your doorstep, but not for alms.

He is the one you always wanted to know:

the loving one to take into your attic for a wild kiss,

the one with pain in his eyes and love in his tongue,

the one you met during your childhood.

He knows your secrets.

Now call him in and have a chat.

He is a poem 

good with the untied shoelaces of the mind.

He wants to speak to you, to be with you –

And at the end of it,

isn't that all you really need?

Bio: Aditya Shankar is an Indian English poet living in Bangalore. His work has been published or is forthcoming in Hour After Happy Hour Review, CC&D, ‘Purrfect’ Poetry, Beakful, Shot Glass Journal, Earthborne, Terracotta Typewriter, and Eastern Voices anthology, among others. He is the author of a poetry chapbook ‘After Seeing’ (2006) and a poetry collection ‘Party Poopers’ (2014).