readers submission
POETRY / Raw Magnolias
This is a garden, these are my petals; this is my armoring plant
POETRY / I've seen love
I've seen love/ Rolling down from a mother's eyes/ As she picks her lean child, bathed in innocent blood
POETRY / A means to an end
go further than/ what the hills have seen/ through their ice pick scars
POETRY / Saree
The yard in this noontime is buzzing with/ The white aroma of the guava flower
POETRY / Cyan is my name when I talk about you
I'm tired of living with this nagging thought that we'll cross paths someday, /You and I
POETRY / A Desire or death eats away at my corpse. You are basking in the sun
Do you want my hands/ Will they be enough to keep you warm
POETRY / Sleepy ghost flight
You have made ice out of my heart;/ we were once nothing–you brutalise me
FICTION / The smell
“Stop mocking me, Atif! I am telling you there is something here.”
POETRY / To the Newton of Gaza
Words were never my greatest strength/ But the arsonist's child will read them
We’re still alive
We’re still alive/ but they wanted to die a natural death
The Black Cat
This is a translation by Md. Abu Zafor of Bimal Guha’s “Kalo Biral” from the collection ‘E Kon Matal Nritya' (first published in 2022).
Sindbad
Time to set sail for a new cruise, oh dear voyager Sindbad!
The odyssey of a man
A story of an ordinary man and his very ordinary journey.
My Son’s Shoes
Time, heavy as a thousand suns combined,/ Bends mothers, smaller than the ones they bore,
Little bits of love that remain
Your tea in the kettle, piping hot water/ No sugar, so that you can really taste the tea on your tongue
Bring humanity home alive
This universe’s heart is hollow now for humanity has died inside it.
Miles away
Back at home, food used to narrate stories. Here, food does not travel far to the nooks and crannies of Velutha’s heart; it only reaches his stomach well enough to leave him looking healthy and strong.
Muted sunrise
The hush of dawn and the whispered breeze,/ that caresses nature's resting face
Thoughts of an immigrant
She stands in front of the canvas and stares.
