Know Your Poet: Sarayu Srinivasan
Sarayu Srinivasan is a dreamer and poet by heart. She is passionate about writing, dancing, and singing, and expresses herself through poetry—the one thing that keeps her going. She draws inspiration from day to day struggles, social and psychological issues and believes that poetry has the power to transform. Sarayu is a development sector professional and has worked in child care and research. She is also an admin of the Delhiwallah Poetry Collective. Follow Sarayu on Instagram.
Read Sarayu's poem Shades, a poem on the throes of child sexual abuse. Shades was the winning poem at a poetry competition organized by the Rotaract Club of Delhi Elite on 22 October 2020. The competition hosted many poetry enthusiasts and emerging poets.
Shades
All that I know are three shades
Bright blurry and dark
Gentle comforting and harsh
A jolly ride which could lead you to hell
Because it happened sooner than you could even tell
Shades of sweetness sweet poison and poison
A mere rat tempted by that savoury
Could never escape the trap of treachery
All that I know are three shades
Bright when he smiled at me
Goodies, praises, pastries, chocolates and flowers
Spending time with me for hours
Blurry when he used to touch me on the pretext of playing
Hide seek
Believing I was fragile and meek
And dark when he shut my mouth and did
Things to me which I could not understand
My innocent skirt was no longer innocent
But a gateway to slither his hands and rupture my
Building blocks...
Still trapped -the shades still flashing in my head
I am forty and sporty
But even today I shudder before going to bed
The devil might have left for his hellish abode
But still haunts me every moment
When I see Adam's lineage flashing their white teeth
Because that smile is but a beguile
It's rather frightening
Yes three shades,
All that I know are three shades...
Bright blurry and dark