Photograph courtesy of RezviMasood under CC BY-SA 4.0 license
“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” Mahatma Gandhi, Indian political and spiritual leader

Out of the old
sepia-tinted tableau
frozen in my mind,
smoky and blurred,
the bubbly boy
leaps into life amid

tons of skinny children
swarming out of mudhouses
and running behind our blue car
giggling and shouting
in specks of dust!
He hardly knew then
that he was a child
created without a destiny!
.
Unfolding of years
made him struggle hard:
Too little food,
Long hours of work!
Poverty like a woodpecker
hammered into the
tender tree of his body:
Disadvantaged and
out-of-school the boy
suffered timeless traumas!
.
Sick and sorrowful
he was a drawning self–
Arms flailing!
Water splashing!
Many times he spoke
with God and prayed desperately,
but his prayers went unanswered!
.
Then with ascending hands
he looked at the skies–
The clouds were changing colours
like a furious warty chameleon:
White, grey, blue-grey, black–
Yes, black and dark masses
racing and roiling!
He wished to grab the
freedom and power–
Cyclopean and relentless!
.
An avalanche
of anguish and anger,
A giant stride
from the known to the unknown,
A metamorphosis
that transformed
Beige into Black!
.
© 2020, Ranjana Sharan Sinha
.
DR. RANJANA SHARAN SINHA is a professor of English by profession and a poet by passion, Dr. Ranjana Sharan Sinha is a well-known voice in Indian poetry in English.She is an author and a critic,too. Her poems have been included in the university syllabus prescribed for M.A.(English) 4 semester.Poems, fictions and research papers published at national and international levels in highly acclaimed dailies, magazines,e-zines,archives and journals both in print and online.Received a number of awards for her contribution to literature from recognized institutions and publishing houses.She has the privilege of receiving accolade from the former President of lndia, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for her poem ‘Mother Nature’. Authored and published 07 books in different genres and 50 research papers. The books are:1.Spring Zone (A collection of Poems and Haiku)2. Midnight Sun (A Collection of short stories) 3. Nature in the Poetry of William Wordsworth and Sumitra Nandan Pant  (Criticism)4. Feminism:Times and Tides (A historiographical and theoretical commentary on feminism)5. Different Dimensions (A compilation of research papers)6.Scents and Shadows( A collection of 70 poems)7. Rhymes for Children.Presented papers in a number of national and international conferences and seminars.Associated with many literary associations and global poetry groups. Research supervisor RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur. Lives in Nagpur, India.

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