Poem: The race, the road

The race, the road

I wondered if this race is fair?

the one we enter without repair,

where truth is traded for velocity

and courage hides behind comparison.

We climb as if ascent is everything,

forgetting roads were made to wander.

Life isn’t ladders only

it breathes

in the spaces between.

Step aside from the rhythm.

Sit; wait.

Let the noise thin.

There; something quieter

needs a watch,

patient and unclaimed.

I know this sounds absurd,

but we ache most for what

hasn’t yet happened.

The road, I’m listening,

isn’t only to rise

it’s to remain awake

to where we already are.

With early encouragement from family, poetry and stories have been with Saloni Shah as both a listener and writer since childhood. Now living in Adelaide, ‘Home‑town memories, studies, journeys and migration, along with technology, personal enquiry, and the everyday scenes of kitchens, roads, lecture halls and libraries’, have all contributed to her writing, and she is currently putting together her first poetry collection, Listening Silences, for publication.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.