Know Your Poet: Sarayu Srinivasan

Courtesy: 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