Poetry | Issue 1 (April 2023)

A young man with a bright smile landed in a forest. Amidst all those 

crooked trees thriving on ego, he survived with a drooping crown 

and roots folded in respect. He made a home of an inn, friend of a 

bartender, brothers of strangers, smileys of passers-by. Earlier he 

waved leaves when the eagle pecked at his bark. Later that eagle 

took him as a perch, as a breastplate, as a crown jewel. It’s his day 

to bid us farewell, to turn a city into ruins. He will be shipped to a more 

fertile soil, bestowed a chance to branch profusely. Someday, he might 

pay a visit—but the inn will no more be a home, nor the bartender.