Pulkita Anand

Non-resident 

This poem is not a resident.
No place of belonging, no country to claim 
No border to etch, no document to hold
No sleep, no peace 
No language to sing, no one to hold
The voices of the dead sing in my head
I am the mistake of life and absence of life
I am the mistranslation and untranslatable being

I was born, the nations were warring 
My father carried the loaded wagon for the supply of the canteen 
My mother in her last month walked, when the news broke out that they would raid this town, 
our land
She walked and walked 
She walked to heaven leaving me behind for hell
Mother left without a motherland 
Now, where do I belong to 
This country doesn't accept 
That country I don't know 
Between the two worlds my poem has been wandering like a ghost 
The paper doesn't identify me
I was not born with it
This poem is moving silently without feet



Pulkita Anand is an avid reader of poetry and an author of two children’s e-books. Her recent eco-poetry collection is we were not born to be erased. Various publications include: Tint Journal, Origami Press, New Verse News, Green Verse: An anthology of poems for our planet (Saraband Books), Comparative Women, Origami Press, Asiatic, Inanna Publications, Bronze Bird Books, SAGE Magazine, The Sunlight Press, and elsewhere.