The Creativity Issue (2019): Asian Poetry Review

Each issue we feature the work of Asian female writers all over the world. Here are this issue’s poems:

What Once Was by Upneet Kaur Aujla

A divide.
A severance.
A partition. 

What once was:
Light-hearted laughter,
Streets filled with frolic,
Everyday life. 

Became:
Fear,
Inability to seek,
A foreshadowing of sudden death. 

It was a sudden transition into
the unexpected becoming the harsh reality. 

It used to be:
Peaceful coexistence,
Respect,
Mutual Understanding. 

Now it is:
Extremity,
Repeated Violence,
Hostility.

Friendships turned to become the sudden enemy,
leaving there to be nowhere to seek a home. 

It was a house with:
Flourishing plants climbing the walls,
Colorful handcrafted furniture,
Rooms filled with the harvest of the season. 

It became a house that was:
Invaded by force,
Diminished, stripped of its memories,
Settled with the chaotic irony of what once was. 

Something crafted with such care,
all destroyed in the light of a “positive” change. 

What once was:
One united force,
One nation,
One common goal. 

Ended with:
Two nations,
Two sides appeased,
The third excluded. 

The partition,
A positive for two,
But a life-altering situation,
For one: Sikhs. 

India: a nation that fought for the independence of imperialist rule,
only to implement their own injustice

Untitled by Aneesah Ahmed

See the trees?
The dead leaves fall, but it isn’t a tragedy.
 They release the burden of useless weight and allow space for new growth.
 In the same way;
 everything we cling to, may not be valuable to us. 
Pluck away the unnecessary, the old and unneeded.
 Make room for renewal. 
Revival.
 Restoration.