Editorial: Reviews – ULR Issue 14, Witness
Readers are invited to witness diverse realities—global conflicts, political decay, historical narratives,…
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From ULR
Issue 6 – Freedom
Cyst
A body's hidden pain unveils new knowledge, transforming into an offered, hopeful meal.
December 1, 2021
(for S)
Cyst – a word
we weld
with something like
hunger. Schist –
the texture of
Pangaea chapattis,
shampooed lentils.
Mist – fate’s
anaphora veiling
a fibroid-ridden uterus
slowly changing
everything. Kist –
where we hid
when we pained,
our supple hearts becoming
a site of learning
throbbing with knowledge. Kissed –
by a vacancy so large
we could smell it
on windowpanes. Palms,
psalms, paeans, prayers –
the gist – of a million
helplessnesses that
childhood of all ages
is heir to. Blessed –
when she took her first steps
saying, now that I am better
let me cook for you.
📖
PART OF A COLLECTIONSukha and 4 other poems
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Ankush Banerjee
Ankush Banerjee (he/his), poet, Culture Studies PhD research scholar and serving Naval Officer, is the author of An Essence of Eternity (2016). He has been recipient of the 2019 All India Poetry Prize, as well as the United Services Institution of India Gold Medals in 2013, 2017 and 2022, for his essays on Military Ethics and Leadership. His poetry, reviews and essays appear in Eclectica, Cha, The Bombay Literary Magazine, The Tupelo Quarterly, Kitaab and The Indian Express, among others. His work has also appeared in the anthologies, Yearbook of Indian Poetry 2020 and 2021, Best of Asian Poetry 2021, and Converse: Contemporary English Poetry by Indians. He is currently stationed at New Delhi.