Creator’s Mask by Sushant Thapa

I wish to be a tree,
It is a trace, in affection
To nature.
Just now as I type
I can see it behind me
In a dark reflection
On my phone.
Some fearful symmetry,
Its photographic contours,
My childhood memories with it.
My social bond
As neighbours liked the fruit.
A tree, a living temple -
Shades worship its memories
Of childhood swings.
Could not climb high,
In those childhood days.
Never knew nerves ran
In its branches,
It could hear like a silent device.
A tree stands like a magnificient
Avatar of god's manifestation.
It is not like the creator's mask.
It stands tall and proud.
The town dust it gathers
But in every spring it is free.

Bio: Sushant Thapa is a Nepalese poet and fiction writer from Biratnagar-13, Nepal, with ten books of poems to his credit and two books of short stories. The books of poems are: The Poetic Burden and Other Poems (Authorspress, New Delhi, 2020), Abstraction and Other Poems (impspired, UK, 2021), Minutes of Merit (Haoajan Publishers, Kolkata, 2021), Love's Cradle (World Inkers Printing and Publishing, New York, New York, Dakar, Senegal, 2023), Spontaneity: A New Name of Rhyme (Ambar Publication House, New Delhi, 2023), Chorus of Simplicity and Other New Poems (Ukiyoto Publishing, Philippines, India, USA, 2024), Finding My Soul in Kathmandu (Ukiyoto Publishing, Philippines, India, USA, 2024),  My Grandfather Had Been a Cowboy (Ukiyoto Publishing, Philippines, India, USA, 2025), The Walking Rebel (Transcendent Zero Press, Houston, Texas, USA, 2025) and When I Desire and Other Poems (Ukiyoto Publishing, Philippines, India, USA, 2026).

His first collection of flash fiction and short stories is titled "The One Rupee Taker and Other Stories from Nepal" published by Ukiyoto Publishing in 2024. His second collection of short stories is titled "The White Dot and Other Stories" published by Transcendent Zero Press based in Houston, Texas, USA in 2026. 

Thapa holds an M.A. in English from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. Curriculum Development Center has approved a poem by Sushant Thapa titled "Festivities" to be taught in Grade 6 in Nepal. It is included in the book Paragon English.