Two Poems by Nishi Pulugurtha

Nishi Pulugurtha is a poet who writes with the heart of an empath. Her poems echo the state of people and nature around her. In simple, lucid language her verses give voice, subtly to the unheard, unseen, unnoticed and unexpressed. ‘Faces’ expresses the disconnected blankness of a mind troubled by illness (dementia). The ‘feather’ acts as a metaphor in the second poem to reveal the confined state of the woman, which she had difficulty figuring out. The poems are evocative in their directness, jolting the reader into awareness!

1. FACES

A man on the table, looking at me

I look at the face . . .

That face listens to me when I say things

I walk out and look here and there

I am looking for a thing

That face on the table does not ask me anything

I stand in front of it and talk

Why does that face not say anything?

That face angers me, I look away

I find a piece of cloth, I hold it in my hand

I need to keep it away

Now where do I put it

I put it behind the face, it is safe

There are other things there

How did all these things come here…

I look at the face on the table, I smile

The face looks at me… it is nice.

2. GILDED CAGE

There is a strange emptiness that gnaws

No noises in the house

It was silent for most of the day

Voices at night only

The quietude disturbed, she wanted to make noises

She needed to be heard, so much to do

But how could she, she was stuck.

She had all.  Or did she?

Could she work around it

It was all everywhere

The feather flew out, through the gap

Her eyes traced it, for a while

She sat and gazed out …

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