".My India" poem by Suman Mondal

 

Heat, dust, survival, dignity,

I pour my heart in tenderness.

It is not me.

It is my soul speaking.

My country lies quietly

inside the hollow and the full,

the shallow and the deep

of my heart,

where countless lives stay warm.

My country, India.

If I return

into the depths of time,

I see

the jewellery of wisdom

still sparkling

a thousand years later.

It is me speaking.

My heart wrenches,

it pangs,

to see the glorious past

still carrying the scent of candles,

while dignity, love, peace, unity

break into tiny particles

in young minds.

If I had the life

to dive into those hearts,

I would gather the fragments

and make them whole again.

It is my country, India.

The dignity it holds

still sparks my heart,

a quiet, burning patriotism.

Something within me rises,

guiding my hands

to touch the untouched,

to feed the hungry,

to nurture what we have left,

like a garden waiting to bloom.

My India,

if my life shatters into darkness,

if I fall into the unconscious,

my soul will still return here again,

nameless,

proud,

Indian.

                                                                      Author 

Suman Mondal is a rising poet from West Bengal, India. His philosophical poems have been featured in The Statesman, a well-respected Indian newspaper. His other works have been published in Lekh magazine, Faith Hope & Fiction, Spillwords, Brief Wilderness, Literary Yard, Apotheca Journal, and most recently in the festival issue of The Statesman (2024 & 2025). He has been shortlisted for the Young Writers’ Weekly Prize (2025) and is currently pursuing an honours degree in English literature at Rampurhat College.