Digital Beings

In this digital era

the digitalized emotions

change with the hands

running on the keyboard.

Emojis, often in a row, that defy

the science of hermeneutics

Abbreviated messages

that are as short

as the short-lived feelings

they intend to convey.

The pictures on the screen

upload desire, which

the inbox messages multiply

Sometimes she may bare her soul

along with her body

Who can dispute Donne

that ‘pure lovers’ souls descend

to the senses else ‘a great prince in prison lies’?

The neighbor next door

keeps himself updated about me

from my posts on Facebook

and dismisses my presence on the street

with the mandatory salutation

later’ liking’ my post in acknowledgement.

But when darkness descends on the mind

when likes, reels, shares don’t matter anymore

when existential crisis, loneliness

saps the body, knocks at the soul,

the digital beings recall

some quote of Kafka

or Camus’ essay about Sisyphus

with the boulder on his back

climbing the mountain eternally.

But these unbearable thoughts are brushed aside

because the escape route lies

beside them on the bed

whose one click makes them

digital again.

S. A. Hamid (retired Professor of English, Kumaun University Campus, Almora, Uttarakhand) has published five books of poems, the latest being The Alchemy of Ageing (New Delhi: Authorspress, 2021). He is currently trying his hand at writing short stories. He can be reached at syedali.hamid2@gmail.com

Freedom song

Leaves fallen beneath a tree,

crimson, ochre, brown dimpled by dusk.

In windless air one rolls gently away

another follows, another, yet another

like butterflies I once pressed into pages;

their colours gone, smudges of the past.

Bookmarks dead, yet alive.

I had chased one to a rose, crimson on red.

Gripped it hard; yellow dust flecked my nails.

Let go. It tottered, flew in zigzag lines

dropped on dewy grass as if drunk.

One good wing opening closing

another torn, it's yellow dust breathing

pressed into a page to die, breathing still.

Another followed, another, yet another.

Cruel childhood bookmarks;

dead, yet alive.

Dead leaves stirred to a sudden windsong

Rolled, stopped, rolled, listened.

Opened wings, lifted by the freedom song.

Red, ochre, crimson, yellow, brown.

Vibrant pinions defying the gathering dark

Alive to the world, it's ultraviolet light

Ascending in a single drifting flock

to return like flitting lights

from the dead.

Neera Kashyap has worked in newspaper and developmental journalism, specializing in social and health communications. Her early literary writings were dedicated to stories for children and a book for young adults (Daring to Dream, Rupa & Co., 2004). Later, her poetry,

short fiction, essays and book reviews appeared in various Indian and international literary journals and anthologies. ‘The Art of Unboxing’ published by Red River Press (2025) is her debut collection of poems. ‘Cracks in the wall’, another debut collection also published in 2025, is of short fiction. She lives with her family in Delhi.

Domesticated

Where memories

do not keep, where

tunes are confused,

how do you serenade

your beloved?

How do you sing

open skies and

soaring wings,

when all you see

are walls?

The walls grow

in your cells,

till blinkered,

you trot on

the straight and narrow.

The tonga driver raises

his whip and lashes.

The horse neighs

in pain

but still obeys.

Mitali Chakravarty has three books of poems: Flight of the Angsana Oriole (Hawakal, India, 2023) and Cities, Nomads and Rocks (Gibbon Moon, UK, 2024) and From Calcutta to Kolkata: A City of Dreams (Hawakal, India, 2025). She has edited two anthologies, Monalisa No Longer Smiles: An Anthology of Writings from Across the World (Om Books, India, 2022) and Our Stories, Our Struggles: Violence and The Lives of Women (Speaking Tiger Books, India, 2024).