Unwanted Companion

I wait eagerly
for absolute darkness
to lose my shadow

it troubles me to
feel its presence
grow, then diminish,
but not disappear

I grow weary of its company
walking close
beside me, before me,
behind me

an appendage that
speaks its own
language

formidable in
eloquence,
eerily chained to
my heels.

Some of Neetu’s Books

Pennsylvania Bards’ Eastern PA Poetry Review 2023

THE OCOTILLO REVIEW SUMMER 2018 VOL 2.2

Stagnant by Neetu

August 26, 2025 by Neetu Malik in category Poet's Day by Neetu Malik tagged as Fog, Hope, light, Neetu, summer's end

Stagnant

I drop pebbles slowly
watch them fall
in a shallow stream

it runs cloudy
under such a pristine sky—

they ripple
and disappear
from my eye—

but I know

they lie trapped
in murky debris
that rained down

from angry clouds

Some of Neetu’s Books

Pennsylvania Bards’ Eastern PA Poetry Review 2023

THE POETIC BOND X

THE OCOTILLO REVIEW SUMMER 2018 VOL 2.2

THE POETIC BOND V

THE POETIC BOND VI

0 1 Read more

Foreboding by Neetu

July 26, 2025 by Neetu Malik in category Poet's Day by Neetu Malik tagged as Fog, Hope, light, Neetu, summer's end

Foreboding

she reaches out
touches fog
she had hoped
for the sun

to slip its silky warmth
over her cold skin
withered and splitting

like the bark of a tree
not used to early frost

summer has not yet
run its course, she whispers
as she exhales a misty breath

it is too soon for woodpeckers

in the woods, the air is dense
besides a lone goldfinch
she might be the only witness
to the end

© Neetu Malik

Some of Neetu’s Books

Pennsylvania Bards’ Eastern PA Poetry Review 2023

THE POETIC BOND X

THE OCOTILLO REVIEW SUMMER 2018 VOL 2.2

THE POETIC BOND V

THE POETIC BOND VI

2 1 Read more

In the Flickering by Neetu

June 26, 2025 by Neetu Malik in category Poet's Day by Neetu Malik tagged as art, Caves, distance, echo of love, light, Neetu

In the Flickering

Walk me through
your cave

show me the petroglyphs
the stories
you have laboriously pecked on the walls
with your hammer stone,
carved in the light of a lantern
where shadows cast gloom.

I want to see. I want to run
my warm hands along
cold rocks to decipher forms
and feel their rugged ridges.

This light is dim. I need a better view.
Hold my hand and place it where
the scenes begin
that you have etched, with squinted eyes
by a flickering lamp.

I trace them lightly,
my fingers grow numb—
in your cave’s icy hollows
there is no echo of love,
even your stories are silent.

Are you still here or am I
alone?