Nothing is Missing
Arranged beauty, a vanishing self. Silent guns in the corner reveal an…
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From Matchbox
Matchbox – February ’26
Of Novels, Old and New
Love letters once. Father's attic held stained books, raw lives. Now, strange children's stories bloom.
February 10, 2026
In the old days,
every novel carried the same plots and characters—
you could open any page
and read it as a love letter.
In those novels, you found yourself,
paused between time and history.
Once, I walked into my father’s attic.
Novels in my language—oddly shaped, stained—
lay scattered on the floor.
There were stories—only stories—
the slow burn of my mother’s arthritic silence,
and unmarried girls eloping with thieves and thugs.
I gathered some of his favorite books into a pile
and rolled over them out of sheer joy.
The next day I found a young woman’s red shoelaces in my locker.
These days people read only graphic novels,
but I have rediscovered children’s stories—
strange, and alive.
📖
PART OF A COLLECTIONOf Novels, Old and New & 3 Other Poems
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Ashwani Kumar
Ashwani Kumar is a poet, political scientist, and professor whose work has been widely published, anthologized, and translated into several languages. His poetry collections include My Grandfather’s Imaginary Typewriter, Banaras and Other Poems, and Map of Memories, and he is also the author of the acclaimed non-fiction work Community Warriors. He has edited major poetry anthologies, including Rivers Going Home, Scent of Rain, and River of Songs, co-founded the Indian Novels Collective, and edits the Hummingbirds Poetry Series in partnership with Red River. He was also a chief editor of Global Civil Society at the London School of Economics. He has held visiting appointments at leading international institutions, including Heidelberg University, the Korea Development Institute (KDI), and the German Development Institute (DIE). He also writes for publications such as The Indian Express, The Hindu, Financial Express, Outlook India, Scroll, and The Print. He lives in Mukteshwar and Mumbai.