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.