The little boy, his fingers caked in mud
Crawled under the tarpaulin sheet
Which was a tent: his home
His brother beckoned to him
Crying for something to eat
They were not among
Those who brought in festivals
With lights, presents, and sweetmeats
Not for them were the pleasures
Of a life marked by excesses
They heard the language of the city
Harsh, cruel, and real
A city that screamed at them
In a medley of dialects
As they scraped together a meal
A city that taught them
That only the fittest would survive
They didn’t seem to qualify
For the city’s delights
They could only cling to each other
Lonely, sad, and terrified
Dreaming of a life dignified
Under the night sky
Bio
Aishwariya Laxmi is a writer, editor, blogger, and poet living in suburban Chennai, India. Her poems appear in Spillwords.com, The Drabble, anthologies by Sweetycat Press, Writefluence, Soul Poet Society, ThirdEyeButterflyPress, Indie Blu(e) Publishing, etc. Her bio was featured in 'Who's Who of Emerging Writers 2021' by Sweetycat Press. She was one of the Top 3 winners of High-5- The Great Poetry Hunt Contest organized by WriteFluence. She has also written flash fiction and essays that have been published in anthologies, which are available on Amazon. She blogs on https://aishwariyalaxmi.com/ and has a newsletter at https://ash.fambase.com/.
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