Today in the dVerse Tuesday Challenge at dVerse Poets’ Pub my friend Punam has introduced us to the life and work of the Punjabi poet Amrita Pritam, and has offered five of her lines (of which I chose the first, below) as epigrams for our own poems in response.

So, with a nod to Punam, and another to Amrita Pritam (the source of my inspiration for today’s love song) I offer you this:

after Amrita Pritam

When a man denies the power of women, he is denying his subconscious. Amrita Pritam

Undeniably you honoured my power

in a tilt of your chin and the tip

of your mercurial tongue

and then you told me


I entered your dreams, in ways that

blushed your inward parts,

amusing mine by your

discomfiture

but you stopped short

of responding to my beckon,

Beacon Buoy. Why

are you afraid? I

will not harm you,

am innocent 😇 after all

©Kathy Labrum McVittie 31 May 2022