Winner | RTF Poem Writing Competition May 2021
Category: Poem: Complex Pasts – Diverse Futures
Participant: Tanya Nagbanshi
Profession: Architect
City: Jamshedpur
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So Remember me; I remember you
Looked on as commemorative of my period,
I stand 73 m tall preserved as a public property.
Contributing to the Capital’s attraction for touristry; I am the most alluring place;
and love to foresight my visitors.
The time I felt warm hands of my paramour, they admired; The floral motifs, The arabesque, The verses in scripted,
The Balcony that circled, the Vistas, Visions and the Minarets.
How I stood upright amidst scorching sun and; Looked for me by the tender moonlight;
The gardens around nurtured love;
Where lovers quenched a moment, the children rejoiced; Poets rehearsed and alone I would hear them all;
Shouting verses of Conservation, restoration; Preservation The collapsing parts, the abandoned lots; the city’s scar The culture; the history; the complex pasts; and
The diverse future; Filled with possibilities of inspiring vision.
I am padlocked, plinthing and just gazing at the sky above.
The roads around abandoned; that honked day in and out.
I perceive disturbance;
As I stand tall, I feast eyes on the city
I toss upon the breeze that smells of holocaust around; I see smoke that stenches of the dead.
Passer-by once admirers, fail to seize a glimpse;
They look in a hurry running for help and aid.
The garden’s now parched; the bench old and worn. The people locked up alone with the whirling cosmos; breathing in the parallel air;
The setting seems to be bleak reminder of the safety; Been in crisis for long now, the city seems to be at no ease.
No visitor at my gate, with mindfulness and feeling to have a place.
So, remember me, I remember you; As ages passed, I witnessed all;
The absence of sound; carries relation with was before and after, I Will;
Call for prayers till the city defends; Watch with pride the victory in a battle That you didn’t start but firmly end.
So, remember me, I remember you; I Wait; For your embrace.
For ajar of the little front gate.
