Seen

By Soumya Doralli

The dam-water brimmed and splashed,
on the periphery of the steel-grey reservoir,
a frothy bubbling roaring mass,
sealing minds and opening hearts,
chock-full of buzzing mouths,
I pay no heed to the busybodies,
to the arms-in-arms, to the tippy taps,
eerie funeral songs for the cadaver,
unbridled passion to wake the dead,
I wish to cachinnate, 
but instead sigh and
sidle to the iron fence,
keeling over the stile and edging away
bluebells and lilies sway,
you don’t sing such,
you don’t dance so,
you only wish to perk up 
with lips unsure of parting,
reading that last sign of dead end,
you cross it anyway,
chin held high, spirit keeping up,
sure steps never retracing, 
ardent soul drifting away, 
merging into the shrouding mist,
dissipating,
only to be seen.

Soumya Doralli is an Indian author of two books of fiction “I Seek You” and “Hues of the Sky”. Her work has been published in Active Muse, Panoply, Mad Swirl, Verse of Silence, among others.

Poetry to her is a way of self-discovery. She likes the inclusivity of the writing process of how the distant hills or the chirpy rills can’t escape being part of the imagery.

She can be found @soumyadoralli on Instagram.