The Canvas
By Kavita Ratna
Next to a
patch of
dust-lit sunlight,
my canary yellow
ceramic pot.
On it, cobalt blue
petals, from
my daughter’s art class.
Inside, sandy gravel.
At its centre
a purple stem
with swaying greens,
quietly serrated.
No sign of flowers
or even a bud.
Only a promise.
For now,
This is enough.
Soon, the blue
cut-outs will turn violet
and then indigo,
before they
quietly become one
with the
flickering stars
and
the deep dark
beyond.
Until the grey-pink
of a new dawn.
Kavita Ratna is a children's rights activist, poet and a theatre enthusiast. Sea Glass is her anthology of poems published by Red River. Her poems have appeared in The Kali Project: Invoking the Goddess within, A little book of serendipity, Muse India, The Wise Owl, Triveni Hakai India, Haiku in Action, the Scarlet Dragonfly, the Cold Moon Journal, Five Fleas Itchy poetry, the Haiku Dialogue, Stardust Haiku, Leaf (Journal of The Daily Haiku), and many others. She was on the Haiku panel at the Glass House Poetry Festival, Bangalore, 2024. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee, 2024.