Poems India

09/04/2026

Watching Hamnet is like being slowly emptied out from the inside. You keep falling deeper into a sadness that feels like it has no bottom. The film plays a mean trick with its happy moments. It gives you just enough life to make you forget the grief for a second. Then the cold comes back harder. That is what watching Hamnet does to you. It makes you feel everything twice.

Link in comments!

01/04/2026

Four Poems by Sumana Sinhababu

10/03/2026

कब्रों में /

एक-दूसरे से सटीं अपनीं कब्रों में
हमने एक-दूसरे के हाथ थाम लिए हैं

कब्र में करना ही क्या था हमें
भीतर-भीतर अपने-अपने हाथ से
एक-दूसरे की ओर की थोड़ी
उस मिट्टी को ही तो कुरेदना था

जिसकी आंख अपनी गोद में
पाकर हमें पहले ही नम हो गई थी

हाथ-दर-हाथ एक-दूसरे का
हाल जान रहीं हमें अपने मरने का
कोई अफ़सोस नहीं हैं

एक-दूसरे का हाथ पकड़े हम
किसी दिन एक साथ मिट्टी की गोद से उड़ेगीं
और मांओं की कोख में बस जायेंगीं

हम ईरान में सबसे कहना चाहती हैं-

जिस तरह अपने हाथों में
हमने एक-दूसरे का हाथ थाम लिया है

आप भी एक-दूसरे के हाथों में
अपने हाथों को कसे रहना।

- पवन करण

26/02/2026

abandoned by his mother, Punch— the baby monkey has caught all our attention. we feel him because we too know what it is to be rejected, to be abandoned, to be unloved.

and many poets have written about this deeply human feeling of abandonment including Solmaz Sharif who uses the imagery of a monkey choosing a soft toy in her poem “Social Skills Training”. Dharmesh here is providing a context for the metaphor and explains why this feeling speaks to us, and how deeply it is connected to parental love & rejection.

Dharmesh ( ) is a q***r poet, facilitator and researcher, running English poetry classes this summer. head to his profile to hear the full poem and sign up for the class using the link in his bio.

28/01/2026

13/01/2026

Tujhe kaun chhedega? (Who would even look at you that way?) Was a harmless comment made by my cousin who also happened to laugh at her friend pointing at me and calling me ugly. More than the laughter, I remember the confusion. In a defensive tone I replied,"sabko chhedte hain," as if this was a consolation to my teen brain. As I grew up, the remark never left me and I surrendered to the ridiculous apathy of male gaze.

I have always been a good daughter, girl, student. For me, it meant obedience which later turned to submission and indecisiveness. Very early in school, I realized I wasn't pretty enough to bag boys' attention. I excelled in exams, topped every year until whatever left of me was reduced to being a bookworm. But the inherent confusion around my sexuality was a dominant one. I existed only when men looked at me. The vulture sat on my shoulders, feeding on my flesh, and chanting the same comment made years ago. I didn't know how else to feel desire if not letting the desire of men turning me into a sexual object. Despite the objectification, I kept talking to them, kept having the punch back moment of my life in response to my cousin's comment, "look, atleast he wants me. And him. And him."

Read the complete prose on our webite (link in comments)

31/10/2025

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