Culture soaked in paeans of a victor

moving like an arrow in the dark

piercing the heart of simplicity

the innocent disappears

like a small boat with all its remains

in an unexpected tsunami

it’s a jaggery-ball in everyone’s plate

but its taste is never disclosed

by a speechless fellow

for suppressing shrieks, one needs

a reckless winner handing over clacks

to be played for ages

I know, for calling it a frenzy

you’ll take some time

but on the neck of a Northern Cardinal

I find a sentence: “It’s the right moment.”

it’s flying near the Statue of Liberty

and watching the torch in her right hand

birds descended in my courtyard say

“Dear Northern Cardinal!

 we’ll fly with you

 we’ll hold a torch with you.”

watching these birds, I feel

very soon they’ll put the words

written on the Cardinal’s neck

into our throats

and we’ll sing a simple song

not an anthem for a desired day

neither for victory, nor for defeat.

O.P. Jha writes on love, peace, environment and social issues. His works appeared in more than one hundred journals including Rigorous, Mantis, You Might Need To Hear This, Punt Volat,  Discretionary Love, In Parentheses, Shot Glass Journal, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, ANTHRA Zine, The Cry Lounge, The Odessa Collective Magazine, Backchannels Journal, Homer’s Odyssey, The Indian Literature, The Broken Teacup, Poetry Pacific, Five Fleas-Itchy Poetry, All Poetry, By the Beach, miniMag, Iceblink Literary Magazine, Infinite Scroll, The Rome Review, Tiger Leaping Review, Aloka , Wildscape Literary, Ghudsavar, Pineberry Literary Journal, Valiant Scribe, Kelp Journal, pulplit Mag, Gabby &Min’s Review, Panorama and others. He is the author of an inspiring book Management Guru Lord Krishna. His poems are expected to be in anthologies "We were Seeds" (from Querencia Press) and "We are Resilient" (from Valiant Scribe). He holds Ph.D. in ‘Translation Studies”.