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Shilpa Dikshit Thapliyal

Whereabouts

This poem doesn't meander
through bougainvillea sidewalks
or rise over sun bleached beaches.
It is not the crimson embrace of dusk
neither is it a tongue nonplussed.
It doesn't gawk at cracking of eggshells
or at dewdrops slipping down a bud.
It doesn't linger on notes of magnolia
or pause at trills of a mynah.
It doesn't whisper a bygone secret
or amuse itself by a toddler's antics.
Instead it lies stark on this sheet
gripped by ennui,
with only a pulped bark for company.

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Shilpa Dikshit Thapliyal is a computer professional-turned homemaker-turned writer. Her poems have been published in Asingbol: An Archaeology of the Singapore Poetic Form (Squircle Line Press, 2017) and Shot Glass Journal, and during the National Library Board's "Poetry On The Platform" exhibition in 2015. Her short story has also received a commendation at India Se's Asian Women Writers Festival 2016. She self-published her debut poetry book Chimes of the Soul in 2015. When she is not writing poetry, she busies herself making chapattis. Shilpa resides in Singapore with her family.