Arun Sahu is a diplomat and writer who is presently the Ambassador to Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Earlier, he was India’s High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Canada, and Deputy Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).  He served as a Board Member of the US-India Educational Foundation and the Canada-India Centre for Excellence in Science, Technology, Trade and Policy at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. As a diplomat, he has served in the Indian Embassy in Beijing, London and Tehran. He writes poems, fiction and non-fiction in English and Odia. His publications include “Trinidad and Tobago: A Diplomat’s Cultural Expedition”, Iguana and Other Poems

One of his recent poems is on war and its tragic consequences even for those who survive it. Read on.

Waiting / by Arun Sahu

I waited and waited  
Until waiting turned to a prayer,
Faithless and bare.

Monsoon withered; leaves dried
And dreams turned to ashes
In the forest of fire.

In an early afternoon,
On a scorching summer day,  
You appeared in body and flesh.

I thought,
Perhaps someone had ended the war.

Moist in hand, I rushed.  
To embrace you, kiss and cuddle,
But, alas, you had turned to ice
Without any care.