2024 Wingword Prize

By Keshav Sharma

आज एक और फूल टूट गया,
अंदर से जब बिखरी वो,
इंसानियत से भरोसा तब छूट गया

By Dr Anamika Nath

Stepping stones to a damp building.
The green paints scrapping off, a window pane broken.

By Suprabha S

Born in this body, limited by the physical,
Carefully filtered appearances, curated wounds

By Usha Shree V

Birth and death,
Eternal dance of life,
Some lose and some win

By Beena E S

in silent midnight;
as moonlight glistened,
through frozen leaves

By Sonia Oinam

Come, changes, come,
come and transform us;
thou cannot limit thy mind

By Akil Contractor

वहा देखो शायद उस तरफ सब अच्छा होगा
जिसके शेहर काबिल मसीहा होगा
हम ख्वाब-ेओ -हकीकत समझते है जुदा

By Vidula Powar

In the silent theater of coffee-stained nights,
I am an actor playing roles not of my choosing.

By Haribabu Gorantla

Oh breath, the moment you are infused in me is the moment I'm born.

One inhalation and one exhalation

By Archana Mujumdar-Tambe

Twenty years and
Tens of thousands meaningless deaths!
Billions of dollars strewn away

By Nanki Kandhari

While looking in the mirror I see,
Reflections of a celestial being

By Siya Sawhney

We are not a war family
We have not seen the ground collapse in front of us,
We have been privileged enough

By Palak Dhawan

And then the waves of memories flashed,
In the ocean of my emotions.
As all my thoughts clashed

By Varun Dhingra

I love passing through strange towns at night
When they reveal their secret selves in the soft yellow glow of sleep addled street lamps

By Sakshi Jain

In the heart's quiet chambers, old wounds lie,
Unhealed trauma, a silent cry,
Seeds of pain planted deep within

By Debi Mukherjee

The Sun has kissed your skin at birth,
And made you one of them—
The sand, the sea and mountains, you see

By Yaso Manaswini

We were silent, they thought us weak
We were shy, they thought us meek.
We forgot what we had, as women

By Koushik Ramadugu

అక్షరాలతో జ్ఞాపకాలను దాచుకునే అందమైన లోకం అది,
మనిషిలో ఉన్న కళని,ఊహని తిరిగి తనకే చూపించే అద్దం అది

By Prisha Manchanda

The mesmerizing sky is all around me
The gentle breeze of serenity
Captivated I cannot be

By Himanshu Ahuja

The posh residence and the lavish lifestyle,
All faces were graced by a smile!
Everyone seemed loyal sans being vile

By Divya Manoj

में कौन हूँ?
परिचय क्या हैं मेरा?
मेरा अस्तित्व का उद्देश्य हैं क्या?

By Deepti Kambli

पाऊस म्हणजे ओल्या मातीचा गंध,
पाऊस म्हणजे दरवळणारया मोगऱ्याचा सुगंध.

By Carol Elizabeth

The feather blissfully drifted away
Clueless of its path ahead
With a leap of redemption

By Shaambhavi Khanna

AN ABSTRACT OF MALAILAH-
Do you remember being a mother, a child, a sufferer or a betrayer?
Can you see the stories that you’ve abaondoned of a dear or a foe?

By Bindiya Bedi Charan Noronha

The snake coiled
Silent, deadly
Watched humanity

By Shivani Vyas

एक जीव हूँ या ब्रह्माण्ड हूँ,
एक कण हूँ या चट्टान हूँ

By Aaliyah Bindra

We were shown the hills, not the mountains
Picnics by the unperturbed rivers

By Chintana R Chanda

The eyes meet, fleeting memories of a long lost past resurfaces
Were those memories actually made?

By Ankita Kolhe

Pushing me over the edge, pushing me over
Relieves you?
Do it.