Sunday Poetry | 'The Briefcase' By Suryanshi Pandey

The high rise in Suryanshi Pandey’s ‘ The Briefcase’ is a lonely place where ‘dreams take a halt’. The high rises seem perfectly fine from the outside - ‘glossy chairs and thick walls’ - but within them unfolds the story of hope walking in ‘wearing high heels’ and eventually crashing ‘into ill-existence'. The reader isn’t told what exactly transpires within the glossy walls. But it’s not hard to guess why a voice was silenced between the opening and clipping shut of the briefcase.

‘The Briefcase’ is a poem from a collection called ‘Crooked Hourglass’, which the poet describes as an assortment of personalised poems on corporate politics, lockdown, betrayal, feminism, hopelessness, hope and rebellion.

The Briefcase

In the high rise building,

Hope wearing high heels welcomes,

The little, big and giant dreams,

They enter and explore its charms

In the chandelier that beams,

Beams the promise of new life,

Beams the world of new side,


Slowly the dreams absorb the vibe,

With all the will, soak the tribe,

Fierce, passion travel a distance,

Until they crash into ill-existence,

Existence of sexist weaponry,

Existence of foot-licking expertise,

Existence of favorite dolls,



Soon dreams take a halt,

Become a story of survivor of all,

Yet it loses every dime,


Then the briefcase makes sure,

No one should see this loss,

Glossy chairs and thick walls,

Paint a rosy picture on the internal brawl,


Perfect cabins with spotless glass,

Make an attempt to wipe it all,

Invite the dreams to converse one-on-one,

This feels like cocaine strip on the tongue,


After all efforts, the briefcase does open,

Just to declare the challenge as corrosion,

Then the briefcase greases the clutch by oil,

Clip itself again as nothing happened,

Shrugs the grievance as personal turmoil...

(Suryanshi Pandey, English Journalism PGD from IIMC, works with BBC as Broadcast Journalist)