Suggestions

Fictional Arts - Page 3

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Tactile 

“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
April 25, 2023
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Lahore

How my heart beats With the throbs of Lahore! How the beloved streets Embrace! when the whole world Sleeps in deep slumber How the ebb and flow Of day-night movements Make the city gleam … While the people dream Of
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How long?

How long will I hear waves of violence, blown and tossed by the wind? How long will I look at the face of injustices mirrored in the hill? How long must I smell burns of oppression clung against my will?
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Macaroni Lips

I’m pouting a Fibonacci sequence, a phyllotaxis of impatience, a fern unfurling, the fine pout of a pineapple sprout Don’t you know that the Golden Spiral is just my pout while waiting for you, my pine to uncurl you The
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The Swan

from the ledge George Street traffic throbs vehicles thread towards sunset crowds weave neon flashes noise ebbs and flows there’s peace here among clouds among cooing pigeons returning to roost far from demands and fists a helicopter hovers overhead she spreads her
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Ode To All Women In The World

The distress signals the 24/7 newsfeed daily brings us Of rapes, molestations, harassment at workplace, domestic violence, eve-teasing, dowry-oriented bride burnings, female foeticides, sexual abuse, trafficking, child marriages, enforced prostitution, incantation of a ‘word’ terminating relationships made in heaven blackmail and
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A Dream To Soar Like Rose

‘How did you like the film?’ asked Isha. The morning assembly had just ended; now, the students were filing in queues to their respective classrooms. Isha was right ahead of Prapti in their class queue. Isha’s question made her replay the entire
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sHE

sHE, Her limbs drawn in patterns Knitted from his egoist Hands, Zigzag, Yet demanded to be Flawless. Remarks of ancestral womanhood Slit her breasts into two, One for Him and other For His child. Clutched, pressed, sucked, What’s left for her More
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Ernie

Ernie is another one of those characters that I knew over the years here in Frederick. It happened that he was stuck in New York City during his teenage years on a trip from his native Europe when World War One broke
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Life Lesson-Asian Style

Lately, I’ve been thinking about my Korean upbringing. One defining word always comes to mind.Duty; Expectation; Tradition; For the family name. Okay, so I guess more than one word pops up. But my fellow Asians get it. From an early age, my
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More Lies – Review

A wonderfully warped journey into one man’s unravelling psyche, and a joyous celebration of the necessity of story. – James Bradley, author of Ghost Species A phantasmagoric, avant-garde story set in a lost New York, Richard James Allen’s More Lies both entertains
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The Curatorial Years

With less ahead than behind she begins to select what will fill this old house past her tenure & what will be left behind for clearance, burning or salvage precise distillation of spirit in the cauldron of words better to prepare
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Midnight Dream

I remember the dream on that Midnight. A train passed into my room. Inside my house. Many came in and out, a bunch of Sheets with inks, some blood. Some carried golden pens and Letters. Train named “Dead Poets”, received me that
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The Afghans

The Afghans Did not rape her or slit her breasts You did Still, you blame the Afghans And the Afghans Did not with iron rods, impale her You did Still, you blame the Afghans The Afghans did not push stones
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Pelicans

The full moon Drags the tides The waves dance To and fro I feel I could drown in a Puddle Or I feel like I could dance In a crescent moon Life is like that At times The fish swim
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Eyes Are The Windows To The Soul

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I have always loved people and have always wanted to learn about them from up close. People, their culture, their experiences, always fascinated me since my childhood. I found out that photography gives me opportunities to go and learn about
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Amaltas

Last night, while reading out a Gaelic verse to me, She said she’d wanted to see a golden shower tree! We discussed how long it had been since we were out last time, Perhaps even longer since we saw
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Breastfeeding

Come my child and feed on these breasts This time maybe my milk will come I’ve removed the scabs, cleaned up the blood The doctor says if you suckle enough My body will answer your hunger Come my child, help
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What You Are

I have paid the price For being what I am, I proclaim with pride. I have withstood icy glances, Burning words, entombing silences; Merciless shutting of emotional doors; Smouldering resentment that flashed cruelly Like bloodstained swords in battle;
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And It Continues

Mrinalini’s joy was infectious. Everyone around her could feel it. After all, her dream was going to become a reality. She had known Nikhil all her life. They had grown up together, studied in the same school, college and
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Melting Pot

Somewhere over the blue Pacific, I lost my Indian accent it tumbled out of me into the crashing surf I was born again as a true American, a California girl. Grey coastal fog, fields of strawberries and freeway traffic
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VHS Tapes

Tapes are the comrades to simplicity.  cassette click. Margherita pizzas our incense. indeed a mouldy remnant of earlier times but the only place left to see long gone family like mufasa from the lion king.   an era of
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New Beginning

For Happy New Year  I heard last night, Oh it’s time for new beginnings. But I slept before New Year. People wished me a good LUCK, But I slept before New Year. I Ended my Year before New Year, I SLEPT BEFORE
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Cucumber Stream

Vellamaathi and her son Thalamuthu resolved to leave the palm garden-at present, there was only the label but hardly for the fact, was there any trace of one such a garden. To illustrate the Palmyra garden and its reality, not even
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Régis Debray

The thought of Régis Debray Is not for everyone you know Well, it’s complicated, Each thought setting off Trajectories multiple, Prancing, forward Régis Debray! we who are about to die Salute thee, in the face of Torture, death, impalement, castration The
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Bavarian Inn

In Shepherdstown, West Virginia, over on the side of a mountain, overlooking the roaring waters of a river below and just beyond the meeting of three states in my country, there stands a restaurant serving traditional German dishes with German
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The Perfume Bottle

The perfume bottle was once, Filled with colourful liquid, Lying down on the dressing table, It once had a life of its own. Now seems empty with empty hopes, Lying down without colour and light, That coloured perfumed water, Vanished
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Thandavam

“We’ll be back soon,” as I called aloud, Easwari stepped over the threshold. “I so badly want to join you both and seek their blessings. But it so happens that I just cannot come with you. What can I do,” she
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Feminism

The advocacy of equality Socio-political, economic, cultural, Radical to aesthetic  And now intersectional In the enlightened 21st century Still laments for  Qahat-ur-Rijal…
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A Whole New World

A WHOLE NEW WORLD  ‘I can open your eyes Take you wonder by wonder Over, sideways and under On a magic carpet ride’    The tabletop fountain in the middle of the warm room calmed her down. Jasmine took a deep breath
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From An Old Book

It must have washed up on the shore from the river that dead body. Someone had arranged death  for him. The dead man is walking from the shore towards me. It may take three more minutes  for him to reach me.
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Ultimatum

I think after a time you stop ageing and time itself enters a zone that is timeless Memories freeze somewhere in the thin air and thoughts are scrambled, losing logic There you move on a path between dying and death Uncertainty
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Frozen Harlequins

Crouching on the silent snow Touching the concealed grass below With fingers numbed and stiffened from Encounters with the frosty death,  The women lift their vacant eyes To a mountain eagle in lonely skies,  Each a frozen mannequin  Sculpted form of
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In The Name Of Blasphemy

It was her first day in the new office after being appointed as Deputy Commissioner. A critical district was assigned to her, with all new people well-articulated rather over-articulated both politically and religiously. It was the first time that a
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Thoughts of Color

The audacity of red Spluttering thoughts Like furious seeds of mustard Anxiously tread. A riot of knots  Lurching in my head. Overriding the boundless blue skies Valor, pride and celebrations Colour red emphasize. Beyond these cultural connotations  Red also implies Pain
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One Magical Night

One Magical Night Down in the meadows: On the lustrous green, Sprawled beneath: In the shade of the old oak tree, Surrendered in my thoughts….. My eyes glimpsed: The sweet lilies bloom, Beside the gushing stream: Breathing the scented spray, Profound! As
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Leaf Whispers

I find him barefoot moon-silvered face tilted to forest canopy scrabbles luminous eyes in my torch beam. Now the lightning eastern sky stirs currawong chords breeze prickles bare skin. I shiver. the slap of his unclenched fist still stings,
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The Life Game

Where is my verse? In the atmosphere…? Hiding in snowy mountains? Or, blooming in an oasis? Maybe travelling in An unknown path… Where was my verse? Searched and found The words… Collected them in my Precious heart Along with blooming
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Death

I was at my funeral. My body was wrapped in a white sheet, some of my friends and relatives were standing there and silently looking at my face, of course, they had tied my mouth around my head with a piece of
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Catalina

While contemplating suicide, as he was frequently wont to do, Ceylon Nathan happened to look closely at the plateglass window and noticed a snail crawling slowly across it. He went towards it and… luckily, it was on the other side of the
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What Was

In the kitchen I stand Tracksuit-clad and blinking As the click of the front door shuts The sounds of the day away.   I snuff the gas And the subterranean gurgling fades to naught As, like a latter-day suburban witch
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Sea Eagle

On the banks of the Manning a sea eagle high in the conifer balances on a bare branch shreds and devours its writhing catch. Scales, bones, entrails. My hands deep in my pockets, not like early days of love when you
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Redemption

REDEMPTION 1 Depression shrouded her as it swallowed her into a realm of obscurity. Its murky belly hid her from the light, and she found refuge in its sludge. Its venomous words were so warm, so comforting. It hissed into her
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Comfortable?

O! My boy, my son, Cradle in my arms. Eyes misty as the winter sky…. Silver tears wet my forehead, why? Bury my face in your precious arms; Mum, I don’t understand. Why, is Dad in the box over there? One we
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Between Steps

Ancestral fire, flames licking the dreams, Of a knee, low in raised silence, A sunny bud, brooding on black soils, Am the kite, whose string is loosed from the root, Flying, prying, praying, I step between steps like a dancer, But far
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Izumi’s Scent

“How many times a day?” asked Kobayashi. All the six gathered at the short Japanese table, laughed. The newly married Kashima, hesitated for a moment whether to answer or not. Noticing that everyone was looking at him, in a
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No Closure

Thou shall not kill Divine command it Is Yet uniformed Armed land forces Will not budge Drunken by smoking Iron in hand Ants more valuable Thou shall not kill We learnt as young As five Yet, land forces fed Off our sweats
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Daughter

Dear Daughter, In our society, women love those group of men who do not take rejection seriously. There is a set of rules and regulations in the society, If a man wants to silence a woman, The respected gentleman rapes her, Not
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