Hrishikesh Srinivas 






Listen


I called for you from the softness of my love
Until the loudness of my own voice took me
Back to sleep, a sleep profound. You were there
When I awoke in a dream of that time,
My head in your hands. And you wished to
Hear me, and I heard you.



Angustia


In the aftermath there are ways every parent’s worst can be broadcast
Ways that are recast ways inquired after in commissions
Ways that are summarized ways they become categorized;
These ways will not be known by those innocent children of Uvalde.

In the aftermath there are old arguments about ad hoc freedoms and safeties and rights to renew
Arguments about add-on regulations and the fears of enforcement to be continued
Arguments with information and interests and characterizations;
These arguments will not serve those innocent children of Uvalde.

If respect is due for the memories of the fallen
If respect is taught for the lives of the living
May those who can act responsibly without being responsible
Realize what they have, and what they have not lost.
May any argument, any way, begin with respect
Realize the guilt of survival
The shame
The anguish
For the negligence:
To those innocent children of Uvalde?

Hrishikesh Srinivas hails from Sydney, Australia. He is a science and engineering graduate of the University of New South Wales and Stanford University. He enjoys reading and writing poetry, with poems appearing in issues of UNSWeetened Literary Journal, Hemingway’s Playpen, Otoliths, Mantis, and Meniscus. He was awarded the Dorothea Mackellar National Poetry Award in 2011 and the Nillumbik Ekphrasis Poetry Youth Award in 2013, also being included in the 'Laughing Waters Road: Art, Landscape and Memory in Eltham' 2016 exhibition catalogue.

 
 

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