Sushant Supriye’s most recent poem to appear here was “Do you know, love” (February 2018). 

The touch
By Sushant Supriye

The hero sleeping soundly for years
in the page of the dusty book
wakes up when the innocent fingers
of a child open that page in the library
where a musty book-mark is lying.

In the dim light of that soft touch,
an incomplete story
that had come to a halt years ago,
starts again towards completion.

All characters of the world of pages
acquire life again,
dust off their bodies
and remove the weeds
that have grown around them.

Just as all petrified angels
shake off their curse
and wake up to fly again
at the mere touch of innocence,
just as Ahilya* of every story
is freed from her curse
and wakes up again
at the mere touch of her Rama*.

              (*Characters in Hindu mythology)