Bhupendra Kumar Dave, Poetry 2020 Longlist

Miss Thoba

Miss Thoba is a fatty teacher

Fattier than a fattiest creature

Whenever she gives us lecture

All her good teeth begin to chatter

Each word which she tries to utter

Slips on tongue as if on butter

Word flies like withered feather

But we catch them all in air

We munch them for one full hour

And get the taste of filthy ginger

It makes us cry all together

Miss Thoba then stops her lecture

But the words continue to linger

And ring sweetly in our ear

Miss Thoba is a nice teacher

She loves us an’ smiles forever.

         …Bhupendra Kumar Dave

Poetry 2018 Longlist, Bhupendra Kumar Dave

Let There Be Light

 

(Prayer written on behalf of minor girls who live in fear of molestation and rape.)

O God from birth till death
Let there be good light
For   I   want     my   path
All shining   and bright

Burn not thousand suns
Nor   a thousand moons
But light a candle for me
Carrying all worthy boons

With these celestial boons
Sparkling     in   my   life
Let me march with delight
Unto my death all my life

Darken not a single thought
As if moon shut from night
Put   not   my   soul, O God
In   lonely   cage   of   fright

For thoughts that darkness
Sprouts in   any   mind
Darkens the darkness more
For the entire mankind

Dark are the graves of men
With hopes all gone in dust
Darkened by the acts of dark
Bones too are laid to rust

Yet we place an earthen lamp
On the grave’s opaque cover
For the bodies without soul
Those   are   blind   for   ever

What use is of the light?
That we mortal create
What charm in lying low
In the coffin we rivet

Poetry 2016 Longlist, Bhupendra Kumar Dave

My Prayer

I lived as God wished me to be
So whatever I am, let me be

Change not my simple name
Steal not my well earned fame
I fought, made no excuses lame
And won many a strenuous game

Remodel not my fate, let it be
As noble as my deeds
Carve no new faith for me
For mine is of golden seeds
My prayer is simple, dear to me
Not in vain it ever pleads

So whatever I am, let me be
Tarnish not my virtuous deeds

Let my song serve my heart
With pious rhymes of every heart
Let all play their well set part
Breathing a prayer with all their heart

Let all live as God wished them to be
And whatever they are, let them be.