Nothing is Missing
Arranged beauty, a vanishing self. Silent guns in the corner reveal an…
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From ULR
Issue 9 – Violence
1984.00
A kite, once soaring freely, is now tethered, its wild dreams tamed by parliamentary streets.
June 15, 2023
It was circa 1984…
I was standing in the balcony,
gushing over tall, talcum powdered, teen-aged school girls,
bantering on provincial socialist jokes
and worrying about late-night movie tickets.
I saw a Kite dodging the force of gravity,
swirling in the winds,
escaping the lure of the clouds…
After days of mayhem,
the Kite kissed the forehead of the coffee-coloured sky,
bid goodbye to ozone-less cold ocean of desires,
and returned handcuffed to the olive-green Parliament Street.
All the while, I remember…
The five of us had inhaled
so much smoke from the burning rubber tires,
and exchanged our ambitions so madly,
We had lost count of naked bodies and silent hills…
It is circa unknown…
I am busy collecting freebies,
roasting long red potatoes on my barbecue,
and dusting files of witnesses in the archives in a fit of amnesia!
( Written as an eye-witness account of Delhi anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. From Ashwani Kumar’s Collection ‘My Grandfather’s Imaginary Typewriter’.)
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PART OF A COLLECTIONMASSACRE ON THE ISLAND and 2 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.