Silent Letter to My Post-Colonial Friend – Pawan Hira
Come to me not as if a friend sweet I was
I have never been one if you want to know
Come to me like equals and dare to say
that as strangers we are more than friends
Not in my silence you are needed if you want to know
Nor in my voice do I remember your words kind
On days when I walk past a road filled with filth
it is there I want you but not with your utopian goals
it is there I want to talk to you and stop at once to squat
with a beedi lit in case if a flight would arrive and
make us friends more than the warmth of strangers
Come to me like equals to know and pass beside
me to walk your own walk that our skin may brush
against each other with a mere sense of handclasp
That we may become profound strangers with each word
we leave on our respective doors.
Pawan Nooroo Heera is a poet from India, a founder and editor of The Quiet Letter. He is also working upon his first novel and a poetry collection to be published later.