Saturday Poem

A Homeless Sindhi Woman

In Akbar the Great’s durbar,
Anarkali, Queen of Beauty, reigned.
Yet
even she was buried alive.

Delhi, India’s pride, and I,
inheritor of the marvels of Indus architecture.
Yet
even I have been buried alive

homeless in history’s graveyard.

by Popati Hiranandani
from Man Sindhin
publisher: Lok-Sur, Mumbai, 1988
translation 1998, Anju Makhija and Menka Shivdasani,
with Arjan Shad