seen

By: Sanjana Karthik

She just desires to be found,
Seen,
Listened to,
Heard in this world’s crowd

Treated as a soul
Elemental human rights allowed

Recognized,
Heard,
Spoken to
For more than her curves

The respect she deserves
Is omitted from her world

He just wants to be embraced
Seen
Noticed for a while
Because he feels forsakened
In this world’s crowd

Never yearning to return
To a place
He could never call home
Never discerning a touch
More profound than his own

He just longs to cry
To isolate himself 
From his disguise.

Now,
Afansi
And Nadia
Divert their entity;
Their time

Writing to each other
Seeking whatever solace
They can find

Because even distanced
They notice each other
Identify one another
Even, as lives 
Are punctuated by the war
Their tenderness bleeds on
As it connects with their souls

And paralysed
In coffins
They pronounce
One another

As more than the deserted ghosts
The war and its bombs 
Had brought in place

Now may their souls 
Rest in peace
For one man’s initiatives 
Dictated a cease
For two young people
Once in love

This could have been averted 
If we learned to speak
Learned to attend
Learned to shed light 
On voices and people 
Unseen

Fostered
And tended to our actions
Before one slip of the finger
Accompanied with it
Such destruction

Now, one agonizing occurrence 
Ripples into another
And wars begin hovering 
One after another

But like Afansi and Nadia
Your stories will come forward

And new voices,
Hearts
Will break
And heal another

​