“The longing to touch…I feel gratitude when I touch someone — as well as affection etc. The person has allowed me proof that I have a body — and that there are bodies in the world. — Susan Sontag, from As
Clocks and mirrors Carries on working Even though when No one is staring Today dissolves Into tomorrow Like two different Droplets of dew Travelled from yesterday On the wings of Joy and sorrow.
I do no more comprehend the language of this nation For our mother’s tongue tastes soured Fretful rapacity of our fathers has sullied her glory with avarice The tongue of love has been besmirched by despise The tongue of war
It’s a terracotta house. On the terracotta wall there is the painting of my love It’s the painting that changes its hue as the season changes its own. There is a flash at the end of the tunnel A flash
She said: You are far away from home. You can’t meet your friends and family. Who do you miss the most? With a breaking voice, I whispered: I only miss the fact that nobody will miss me.
An Interview With Megan Dhakshini Megan Dhakshini is a multi-faceted creative: a writer, singer and voice actor, and it is her voice and the flowing conveyance of self that is evident in her first book of poems, ‘Poison Apple’. Megan’s
There’s one in every family the black sheep the bull there are names for me you won’t find on Wikipedia whispered, rumoured too ugly to share I wanted to tell my story but there are no words only mythologies yes the
It’s Sunday afternoon and she’s in the wash house standing in stocking feet on the roof of theold doll’s house, the one Uncle John Murphy made, and she’s rocking backwards andforwards …bored, bored, bored…rebod rebod rebod rebod rebod rebod rebod rebod rebod
In a city full of programmers I’m troubleshooting my life In a city full of coders I’m trying to hold my poise In a city full of hikers I’m walking my own way In a city full of rain I’m
I am no Syrian woman. I am no brave, resistant, resilient, heroic Syrian woman. And no matter how many Syrian friends I have, how much Arabic I strive to learn nor how many Nizar Qabbani’s poems I read. I am
—Kyabchen Dedrol སྐྱབས་ཆེན་བདེ་གྲོལ, translation by Lowell Cook and the author Poetry is the impoverished wick of a spent butter lamp. Poetry is the dog that scuttles an arc around the master’s thrashing body. Poetry is the grinding adzi bead’s sacred blood-spot
This poem cannot be finished off writing, this song not ended, thirst not quenched; Every memory refuses to be effaced, every plot declines to produce, every face is reluctant to endure. A dream unwilling to dissolve, lingers forever– although I
People have been sharing images of religious co-existence in this country to exemplify who we are as people – so I thought of sharing a story of my own. My father was a very sarcastic atheist – but his looks
Who’s going to want you with all you’ve done? I wonder what crimes I’ve committed other than love the way I felt. Is it really my fault that I’ve loved those who were unworthy? Does my potency as a wife
The Hindi word Dalit can be translated as divided, split, broken, scattered… like a handful of rose petals flung into sugared water to flavour gulab jamun soft, delectable, melt in the mouth dumplings… but there is nothing soft or sweet
They had had another run-in. No matter how much she tried avoiding it. And it was right when she had to rush out of the house too. She hated the way someone could belittle another person and then hours
I stood against the front door, staring up at her, bags in her hand. As my mother’s voice strengthened, my body weakened. I shrank to the ground, hugging my knees to my chest, wanting to scream: shut the fuck
It was a humid Saturday afternoon. The mugginess around had caressed most of my friends at God’s Children into an untimely siesta. Sister, in her white habit, too, was busy sleeping. The cleaning lady, Domenica, had taken the day
Sunshine gives me the shadows of black Rainstorm brings up the darkest night… Windy atmosphere touches my soul, hay… Hold my breath … I am fading away.. These little things put my mind on stake.. That giant man follows me up
It’s 42 Degrees. In between the hustle and bustle of Gardezi Bazaar, Beggars line up at the kerb of each street. Upper-class auratein walk with conceit, draped in their fancy chadars, clacking their heels. Mard blast angraazi music, car windows
Tea with the Demon In terms of beauty that hackneyed dragon still beating its wings everything can be broken down a little further each howling beast like the rest of us imperfect, uncertain bearing witness I didn’t like the look
It was a beautiful day in some far future time, and the world is at peace and happiness is everywhere. In a school, a teacher enters the class, and students mainly of 12 to 14 years of age stand up
Somebody kills Somebody spills blood I too weep for the people who bleed I too curse the people who make another bleed. “Are you a Muslim? Come out and reply.” Somebody yells outside my house They bang the doors and
I bring you out of the wardrobe dressed in Astrakhan,foetal curls of black wool that never breathed.I stroke and stroke and bury my face in your warmth.Feeling you yield, I lift the heavy collar until it coversmy ears and half my
How would you like to feel in your body J Mase III asked before beginning his workshop with a group of thirteen womxn and trans folx dealing with body trauma? How would you humanise your scars? Can you write yourself
Not a hop, step and jump, but a stumblefrom the gravel road, when a stubbed toeleads the way to a giant leap since the house was on the low side of the streetapproached by descending steps, flanked by rose bushes
හෙවත් අනිච්ඡාවත සංකාරා A woman was killed in my neighbourhood in 2011, because of Love! I saw it with my own eyes, as did the many who were around. Millions of women are getting killed everywhere in the world but,
At the age of six, probablyI remember my mother sayingthat there are these sacred parts in my body that I should not let anyone touchAnd to me it seemed pretty absurd, how the ugliest and the dirtiest partsbecome sacred? And I
Ganesh at Saravana’s flicks, in a frenzy,the sequined sarees off the display lineabove the doorway, as the rain beats in,and Selvakumari crouches on the pavement, her face crumpled, shivering,by the wall of The Happy Food Corner. Dressed in grimy, threadbare rags,Her
To Ali Osama and mewe dreamtof making Palestine free.From Yarmouk* we used to followthe events in Gaza and imaginewe would dieas martyrson Palestinian soil. We could neverhave imagined that warwould knock on our doors.We could never have imaginedthat Osama would leave this
Is this where that karthakolomban tree was?’ Standing near the sun-wilted crimson anthurium flowers, Jude was so deeply lost in thought that he did not realise his Bata flip-flops were being attacked by a sea of angry ants. The cloudy sky above
The grandmother ever at my shoulderWhat harm another little nub of butter?A pinch of sage would lift the whole thing Navigating the gaps as nimbly now as she didIn her dimly-lit kitchen with its three trip-up steps to sprinkle and stirHer
Men always laughedAbout my slightly overgrown breasts: ‘Boys are not supposed to haveThese things!’This made me a bit of a hunchback. Stiff walk, rounded shoulders, hiding ‘things’, beneath my loose shirt, I was scared of becoming a womanAs a preteen. Why
Where are you, oh my fairy godmother!You searched this corner and the other.Swabbing the stains of your own goreWhen his anger shoved you and more. Do you exist or did you become extinct?You moaned in silence but distinct.He might hear me cry
First it was gold the untold storyraindrops in the gardenof longing she wrote it down tore it, ate the wordsthey were anything but sweetswallowed hard what gorgonthat was just a bad hair day my ringlets my pearlshow many men were lost
I learned to love storms as a young man,Because storms were all I knew.Anger and intensity everywhere;Home daily ripped by lightning flashesOf unexpected violence and unexplained pain. I learned to survive on an open sea Of pain and hostility; Hiding
My little singing bird Wherever I go I carry it within me Or rather it sits fluttering in my being As I sit down at my desk to dream away It takes me above the valleys of Anatolia Orange groves Strawberry
When they found me my eyes were tilted upwards towards the window towards the light. A policeman said it seemed as if I was looking for help — Well of course I was I had been looking for many, many years.
I wish I believed my mother when she said that there will be better days. That the sky isn’t the limit and I really can do anything if I set my mind to it. I wish I believed her when she
All of me is nothing but a spark of fire Blowing all the lights in the darkness All of me is nothing but a ray of hope Running through the veins of an unknown soul All of me is nothing but
The colour reflects the psychology It reads the mind and spells the behaviour Your colour is purple; mine is blue Once, for your festival, you bought light blue It is, yes, colour influence. No doubt. With this influence-driven context, I fly
The sound of snow in trees makes silence, makes the poem in my pocket sing through the holes, the loose change of angels, all those fallen lights into the world we came in on sound, the stranger cadence. of wave, and
I remember the last time my Mama held my hand tight in hers, as though she could never let it go – But she did, in the end, although that very morning in Uncle Sunil’s little house, she’d fed Angela and
To not sing about the afternoon Is impossible. The one wandering the desert, his voice wringing with grief, is not the singer— in his path, marble tears of sunlight and patti flowers; The nectar’d voice from the mosque that calls one
Of all the doors, You are the one who beckoned me. I stood there, staring at you Contemplating the silent view. I could hear the voices I could smell the fragrance I could feel the living Was it that I incarnated
A middle-aged man was hurrying along the road in that morning to reach his place of business as early as possible. “Oh, get lost! You bad omen.” He came to a halt seeing a few coffins which were displayed in front
I take off my gloves to pull my suitcase up the high steps onto the Tibet-bound train, then wheel my case down the aisle, hoist it into the overhead rack, help my family find seats, and there— out the window, as
Bloodstain on a white sheet confirmed my chastity the morning I woke up from the previous night’s pleasure. A year since then, and I wasn’t able to give a positive answer to my mother-in-law, who started to check up on me
Skies of shimmering gold And blue There is a garden among the Trees The dew on leaves of ivy fluttering Silently shading under the sunbeam A bird on a bough Playing the musical note on a flute: “I go where love
There is nothing called a fine morning in a door to door salesperson life. Especially when it comes to saleswomen. She never enjoyed this job. If someone gives her the option to quit this job and start her career all over again,
O Blessed One, you appeared to me in my dreams By Dr Ujjwal Bikram Khadka. Buddha, O Blessed one you appeared to me in my dreams the other day Thank you, what can I say. Dream, oh yes, and what a dream
Sir, where exactly were you when the alleged offence took place? Ah, and would you agree – as outlined in earlier expert testimony – that this is a dark street? Thank you – and were you alone at the time? And –
A girl I know fell in love with the first boy she kissed. She told me all about it, in a darkened bar a few days ago. She was innocent, and ignited; ravenous and heartbroken. She said she had asked him
“What do you think about the X-rays, Dr Smith?” Dr Zoya Khan asked him, over the phone. “I think we should remove that tooth, especially since she has been complaining about its pain for so long. It just needs to come
You walked into my dream Without knocking at the door You touched me with a swift glance My body melted like ice in volcanic fire You knelt down by my river To drink its water Every sip you took Another river
I will start with the closet which – as some of you may know – is my den. And mother, it’s off limits. I think you will genuinely regret the corpses of memories I hide in there. This entire room is
I am not sure what struck me to leave my base in favour of an unknown destination, for unseen – and, more aptly, unforeseen – challenges: leaving a job as a doctor in Kathmandu in favour of a hospital out
You crossed me suddenly Pervading the smell, It tells you are here You are somewhere in the closer vicinity Then, I add my philosophical underpinning of consumption It has many forms: Seeing, smelling, touching, imagine, actualising, experiencing…! It needs one or
Birds are happy They are flying, some of them singing sweetly Animals are happy They are walking, some of them running Butterflies are happy They are with vibrant colours Trees are happy They are green and most of them flowers and
Wish blesséd nirvana upon me one day for my nine-month pains, for Turning my blood to milk as the poets and scholars have often droned… perhaps also wish enlightenment one day, my son! I am after all, no real blessing to
Sita – when you followed your blue-skinned lover along tangled forest paths Did he marvel at your fearless laughter filling the darkness with hope? Did his heart lift at the sight of you, his sure-footed wife marching melodically into the wilderness
‘Don’t come to the office again, not even to meet your friends’ Lila said, in a bitter voice. Her thin lips shrunk. Nadeeka’s face darkened, and I was pleased for a moment. Both Nadeeka and I were suspended from work last
When you have to leave home the word belonging loses the be and just the longing is left. When your language isn’t spoken by anyone, when you have no one to talk to in it but you your memories stop trying
Amid the hurriedness and haste there lazes stillness, motionless and chaste In an unseen galaxy of a trifling territory It is but a forgotten keyhole of a lost realm As you step within spreads out a Universe trimming your dream bundle
I got refuge under the shadow you left It should be of yours in the desert of relationship Composed by the song of the heart joined together You are not there How does the shadow remain? Possible, because it is for
The trash can filled with all invaluable items Items, those I preserved On and on for years together Started to open the day I understood Understood What is what Who is who? Where is who? Why is what? My charismatic articles
Days are tricky as dogs, you don’t know what they will offer you on the next day even if you had been running on your own routine. I was really tired of handling everything on my own. I had been so
‘Great! I will meet you there in a bit!’ Mo said, via text message to Zareena. One message filled with the expression of his desire for her was enough to make Zareena squirm in delight. How weak she was to Mo’s
Her hair Freshly harvested dreadlocks Unedited gospel of love Off limits to combs. Tresses like streams Of eternal fire- From the arsenal of her body. Poems conceived in a celestial tongue When stars align with cesarean precision. It is our own
by that river I bend down to note down in my notebook for I hear the water flow but see not the bottom of the bed, not even knee deep I breathe the fresh air but creeps that doubt I think
He shouted: Middle of night – is it time to wake up? I screamed: why can’t you check by yourself? I don’t want my sleep to be disturbed I wish my mum was here to tell the time. He complained of
Come Again, Another Day When it rains like this in the City I think of you Like being inside a waterfall The thundering cascade Can the glass in the windowpane stand it? It is morning, and the sky is dark grey
His budget-conscious ma-ma used to make him fill-up on a steamed pork or chicken bun before going to an extended family yum cha luncheon So he never really developed an honest appreciation for the more gourmet seafood dumpling. And though he
Breeze of autumn swooshes the leaves, The world gushes forth fast and furious. As I sit in a solemn wooden chair, Resting my neck in a wine red cushion By my window, lacy white curtains pushed aside Sun sets behind the cedars
Clouds swarmed in great dark clumps a malformed day transformed to murk as she was dumped – a squall settling beyond wailing walls, wind bawling Following through the icy halls head bowed, bag in hand flat soles slapping cold stone flags and
In this case There’s no honour in being violent No honour in unleashing feelings that refuse to stay silent There’s nothing worse than Leaving your daughter more than frightened But still Some would go beyond those limits To protect the family name
I used to feel it a lot when I was younger. The sense of bitumen laid smoothly over something so much wilder, and more complex. The awareness of what exists, past the boundaries of the nature strip. It is a great country,
No one is speaking, but everything is. The wordless hanging hurricane lanterns on breath, firefly words electric over forever’s backyard shiver me sideways inside the blizzard of myself. I’ve kissed you with that breath, the shawl of snow. Now, wherever you go
is made with a poetic love, like breaking lines in my poem I chop into pieces the Roma tomatoes and the English cucumber with the yellow onions, all raw adding also some boiled dried Indian chickpeas with un-fried sunflower seed, sprinkling generously
Verbal, verb-less, jabs of manifold colour crimson, gleaming gold and darkling from sisters of the cross of the familial kingdom arches of the eyebrows, with pits and crests on the turbulent waters of marital seas bobbing sisters, aunts, nephews, and nieces, and,
A Monologue About A Ghost & Groundhog Day I never got around to getting a driving license, having my own car. (Pauses, as if sorry). My parents were a little too high strung to teach me. My boyfriend at the time, who always
Waters when they evaporate, meet… at a global conference, to speak of fish dropouts, obscura of clouds, near-deaths, hydrological dynamics, monocultures, and metals: nickel, lead, chromium, at their beds. The bend is notional: water for coffee, cane, banana, paddy, mills, distilleries, fertilizer
I hear the sound coming from the weeping soul You reflect it-the pain and broken heart With the spreading wing of mercy and love Solacing the weeping heart…..! Yes, the wing of the heart is broken The dancing leg is in the
A Short Story Something is finally happening in my life. And I don’t mean like baba noticing the drawings and sketches I’ve been leaving around the house for him to see. No, baba is much too busy to pay attention to something
“I miss those simple times” but maybe We lived through a mere interim False hope Prayed for healing rains on our dreamy heads not ashfalls among the dead. Oh “I miss those simple times” but don’t you remember? Our foundations, our hopes
Last night it rained. I lived that storm in my senses. Felt in my bones that inevitable hush… The calm before the storm. Listened to the distant rumbling of thunder and watched distant flashes of lightning illuminate the night sky. I stepped
In the time between Blooming and withering of a flower…. In the time between One gunshot and another…. In the time between Two explosions you hear… Children set off on perilous journeys, From darkness to darkness… The sun and the moon Armed
I live in borderlands where cobwebs spin my fingers together and sun burns the mark of earth on my tongue. My home is two places and none. Born here and there, speaking the languages of both, my greatest fluency is silence.
01. Sat in the spiritual place on a Friday After checking your availability You are busy at home I entered the place. You too joined me in the line of Prayers shoulder by shoulder with others I smiled at me Not sure
Amid the limbs of Burning up birch trees, Blazes the crimson sun clock I return home, Doves are fluttering away from my fingers… One blend of yellow and white… An attic pigeon sequinned with beads… A bird with eyes kohled
Wide-opened arms of the poem embrace the solitary flame, dancing alone in this dark. while the book kept aside a girl of half nightingale and devil of another descends Through creviced shells of poetry. “What more do you know about the dark?”
Hair traitorous grey shameful need to pretend anti aging. Plucking, dilapidating; dyeing, dying. Betrayal of knees, hands, feet, neck (knees!) circled & magnified, almost expired — quick sale! The male body needing no such revision. His landscape a shameless prairie
This word that keeps poppin’ on my Instagram feed Means so little, so it seems To crafty marketers and vacuous beauties Hash-tagging like tomorrow Will never come Kindled to autoignition point, Melanin shot golden stars out of their hiding places
Why all this vilification, boy? Had you thought that I was your toy? That my every day and every night Was dedicated solely to you by right? Designed, was I, to pledge you my troth, By vocation and avocation, both?
You see, You are much too old. Your river seeks canyons to carve. Your melodies are not music. Not yet. Your language is yet to be born. You are of the Sea, the Earth, the Breeze. You are Freedom. You are
Let the marching swallow, let the battalions breathe, Let the olive wreath be upon their swords, Let their mind encompass a peaceful tree And say; ‘Let’s fight this war and bring harmony’ Man against man, rivers of red, Neither party