Ever since she leftshe keeps being gone.It is as if we were not But if I am unrealWhy is my flesh stainedby reality The shy part of my wrist a plum-blue and yellowSkin she has known as obscenely as my fingers the inside of her mouth. This is not a case of distanceDistance you can […]
Whatever I have, it is something else I want.
Cold nights these. I love the cold, until it is cold, then I crave the warmth. When the sun comes out like a drag queen on stage, I am praying for rain. Whatever I have, it is something else I want. And this is what unhappiness is made of. It is December. I wrap myself […]
Read to save yourself
Vulnerability is my superpower. Today I read The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. It was just what I needed. Brave and comforting, wise and simple. A hand reaching out for my hand, it resonated deeply. It found me the way books have this uncanny way of doing; like they know it’s time. […]
Love in the time of separation
Amour, Time behaves differently around you; the way trees are around the time autumn comes around. Or how rowdy schoolboys turn into dulcet-toned sweethearts around the geography teacher who’s a dead ringer for Rita Hayworth. Time is not time around you. It is an imposter. Around you, time does not move like the staid tick […]
Amour
Your beauty, your smile – like a piece of the sun, Your laughter thick as cream. Days endured I wait for you like an unanswered prayer.
Paused, not broken.
Between the words of I and love and you, missing and kissing. In between the thousand and one cities; yours and mine. Caesuras of longing belonging, turning returning. Paused, not broken. A moment. A sigh. Exhale. I pick up where you left off. We are unbroken / We are unbroken.
She/Her
Flour-kissed skin. Mouths run dry. My blood flips.
Thinking of freedom
To speak and be heard. To tell, to give, to share, and await expectation of coming upon newness. To feel the breath of another upon my cheek. To touch skin. To connect with all that is beyond living; alive. I miss everything I never used to think about before. To dirty my hands with the […]
Reintroducing Siddharth Dhavant Shangvi
Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi is an Indian author. His debut novel The Last Song of Dusk (2004) won the Betty Trask Award (UK), the Premio Grinzane Cavour in Italy, and was nominated for the IMPAC Prize in Ireland. Translated into 16 languages already. He has written a much thought provoking piece here on why labourers are […]
