VDPC English Poem Winners(s)

Our judge, Nikita Parik, for the English poems has made her decision. Here is what she has to say.

Can poetry be judged? Who is to say that one person's truth is more important than another's?

The answer is no. Art cannot be judged. One can, however, have preferences based on the technical aspects of creative writing. Is the writing true to its times, linguistically? How has language been handled? You get the drift.

Thank you for all your poems. While reading through these, I could tell how strongly truthful most of these poems were, which is the first and most important rule of any creative endeavour. Please keep writing. Congratulations to the winners.

And here is the winning poem

Everyday Romance

I like to lick the bowl after I have dessert.

I prefer meat with bones so I can chew on them and suck up the marrow when I am done.

Once we sat in fancy restaurants, facing each other like chess players strategising the next

romantic move while I tried to remember the right way to eat soup.

You sent me hothouse roses

The kind I actually don't even like because they have no scent.

They were dark red, like the fitted dress I could only wear because I'd stuffed myself into

shapewear that lifts breasts, and holds in butt and gut. Trapped, mute in candlelight, celebrating a saint neither of us believes in.

Now the jigsaw pieces of ourselves don't fit together as well as they should. But I for one am grateful for the spaces between us where we can breathe easy.

So, let us sit side by side in front of the TV (and not bother watching the news), and eat rice

and dhall with fried fish and chutney and cucumber.

We'll lick our fingers when we are done and maybe share some barfi or vanilla ice cream for dessert.

And tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow we'll do it again in celebration of our everyday

romance.

Sheena Gurbakhash

13th Feb 2023